Jonathan Kirshner ─ Political Economy and International Security: The State of the Art

From the Global Financial Crisis to the looming implications of a secular slowdown, economic factors continue to have a profound and often formative influence on questions of international security and the prospects for war and peace. Yet the discipline of International Politics still tends to generate studies that largely focus either on questions of “international political economy” or “security studies”, a cold-war anachronism that is now a quarter-century out-of-date. In contemporary world politics, economics and security are fellow travelers – one will rarely be seen without the other. What theoretical tools do we have available to take on such problems? What are the key questions that need to be asked, and what do these conclusions suggest for policy practitioners? Jonathan Kirshner is the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of Government at Cornell. His research and teaching interests focus on International Relations, political economy (especially macroeconomics), and politics and film. He is currently pursuing projects on Classical Realism, the international political implications of the financial crisis, and the politics of mid-century cinema. Recent books include American Power after the Financial Crisis, and Hollywood’s Last Golden Age: Politics, Society and the Seventies Film in America. His first book, Currency and Coercion: The Political Economy of International Monetary Power explored how states manipulate international monetary relations to advance security-related goals. Another book, Appeasing Bankers: Financial Caution on the Road to War, illustrated how financial interests (such as banks) and international financial markets can shape and constrain states’ grand strategies and influence decisions about war and peace. Appeasing Bankers won the best book award from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association.