Course Number:

Credit Hours:

3

Course Title:

International Political Economy

Course Description:

Contrasts two approaches to understanding trade, financial, and other economic relations among nation-states. The first, international relations theory, emphasizes the relative power positions of states in a fundamentally anarchic and unequal international system. The second, neoclassical economies, assumes peace and security, and stresses market relations of supply and demand among both states and private firms. We employ these alternative prisms to examine historical and contemporary issues, which may include the Bretton Woods Agreement, the behavior of the euromarkets, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the possibilities for collective action to reduce environmental degradation or the for-profit trade in arms or drugs.