Production Power and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History

The author had experience in working as officer of ILO, which crystallized into The Anatomy of Influence (co-author : Harold Jacobson). He has restructured his epistemology as well as ontology of IRs by focusing on historical materialism, especially on the idea of Gramsci, so that it would criticised not only realism but positivism as a whole. His theory tries to grasp historical transformations of production=social forces, states and world order comprehensively.

Robert Cox has done a brillant job of taking Political Economy to the next level. Whereas, other political theorists have concentrated on the International Political Economy. Cox focuses upon the Global and the forces which go into the making of forms of production, state and world order. Any student interested in the dynamic historical interplay of these structures is well advised to pick up a copy of this book. Although, Cox is a Historical Materialist, he is a Gramscian thus allowing for a greater theoretical openness then some operating in the same paradigm.