International Political Economy: Understanding Global Disorder

This edited book, which is composed of six chapters, provides a very nice discussion of the international or global political economy in the post-Cold War era. It is not a book for everyone, though: most of the chapters are written from a "critical" (as in Critical Theory) perspective, and some are extremely abstract and abtruse. Still, for those who wish to get a deeper, theoretical understanding of globalization and the world economy, this is a book for you. One of the most interesting aspects of the book, which is reflected in several of the chapters, is the discussion of how Karl Polanyi's ideas about the 'double movement' can be used to analyze the global political economy today. James Rosenau's chapter, in this regard, is particularly interesting. Other contributors, all of whom are prominent scholars in the field, include Bjorn Hettne, Robert Cox, Stephen Gill, Kees van der Pijl and Yoshikazu Sakamoto. Cox's chapter entitled "Critical Political Economy" is especially useful as an introduction to the relationship between Critical Theory and IPE.