In Global Political Economy and the Modern State System Tobias ten Brink contributes to an understanding of the modern state system, its conflicts, and its transformation. In contrast to the political attractiveness of optimistic theoretical approaches to globalisation, this book demonstrates how an analytical approach rooted in Global Political Economy (GPE) helps to explain both the tendencies towards integration and towards rivalry in international relations. By way of a historical reconstruction of different ‘world order’ phases in the twentieth century, ten Brink analyses multiple, phase-specific variations of socioeconomic and geopolitical conflicts that are significant for the modern capitalist world system.
Author(s): Tobias Ten Brink, Jeff Bale
Series: Historical Materialism
Edition: Lam
Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 272
Tags: Communism Socialism Ideologies Doctrines Politics Government Social Sciences Philosophy Aesthetics Epistemology Ethics History Surveys Logic Metaphysics Humanities New Used Rental Textbooks Specialty Boutique Political Science
Acknowledgements
Preface by Bob Jessop
Introduction
Organisation of the book
PART ONE: PERIODS OF THEORISING CONFLICT IN THE MODERN STATE SYSTEM
I. Critical-liberal, Marxist and neo-Weberian approaches
II. Power-politics and (Neo-)Realism within the field of International Relations
III. Deficits and Desiderata for future research
1. Preliminary summary
PART TWO: A GPE FRAMEWORK FOR EXPLAINING GEOPOLITICS
I. Foundations for analysing capitalism
1. Analyses of the capitalist mode of production
2. Structural features of capitalism
II. Capitalism as a globally fragmented system across space and time
1. Combined and uneven development, relations of space and time, and the ‘international’
2. The dynamic of the global economic process of accumulation
3. The dynamic of the international state system
4. Considerations on various forms of competition
III. Historical phases of the world order and the periodisation of socio-economic and geopolitical power relations
1. Structural features, phases and constellations
2. Hegemonic and non-hegemonic phases of world order
3. Phases of socio-economic development
4. Phases of statehood
PART THREE: MARKET-LIBERAL STATISM: CONTEMPORARY GEOPOLITICAL PHENOMENA
I. The balance between soft and hard geopolitics
1. ‘Democratic wars’
2. Excursus: International law within fragmented capitalism
II. Geopolitical and economic competitive relations
1. The aspirations and realities of US empire
2. The EU and the US: A conflict-laden partnership
3. China and the US: A new cold war?
