Winners And Losers Of International Political Economy Essay

The winners and losers of International Political Economy (IPE), is a question of whom, what and why. Who gets what and why does who get what. “Who” describes the winners and “who” also describes the losers of IPE. The winners and losers reffer to the unit of analysis, which will be addressed more in-depth in the sections to come. “Why” is associated with the means whereas “what” is concerned with outcomes. Different theoretical approaches offer different explanations to “why, what and who”, which is also why this paper will argue that winners and losers cannot be identified on the basis of one single theoretical approach. These approaches will also be the main focus of the paper. The structure of this assertation consists of an outlining
Hereafter this paper will conduct an analysis that will use a neo-realist approach. This will focus on hegemonic stability theory , how neo-realism affects international trade regimes, winners and losers. This is followed by theory of liberal institutionalism, which will shed a different view upon who are winners and losers i.e. the unit of analysis. The paper then proceeds to transnational historic materialism (THM), which will try to analyse the winners and losers of within social dynamics. Both realism and liberalism are considered as mainstrean theories within IPE, which is also why THM is used to show the diversity of IPE. At the end of each theoretical approach there will be a discussion towards how theory can used in reference with the developmment of trade. Lastly a conclusion will be made, which will sum up main arguments and answer how winners and losers should be identified and on what basis. It will reinforce the argument that one theory is imperfect at explaining everything, hence theories complement each
The years following, international institutions were created in order to promote peace and economic prosperity. As stated above this paper addresses the issue of trade, more specifically the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which are international organisations (IO’s). The focus of these IO’s was to reduce trade barriers internationally and thereby promote trade. Differences between the two, was that WTO is a legal entity, which in theory, can settle trade disputes (Holm, Knudsen, Nielsen, 1999: p. 15). The period after the WWII also meant the creation/ of regional trade agreements such as the European Union (EU) or more recently the proposals of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between EU and United States, which is expected to increase trade further if it is implemented (Ec.europa.eu, 2016). There are numerous trade agreements worldwide. However, these trade agreements have one common denominator, which is being able to increase trade flows. However with the implementation of GATT trade between nations did not happen instantly (Terborgh, 2003: p. 4). The increase in trade happened gradually as more countries entered the agreement and thereby lowered trade barriers, i.e. multilateral trade systems enabled economic growth across borders (Broome, 2014: p. 141). The next paragraph will make a short outlining