Page 34 - Global Political Economy_Understanding The International Economic Order

THE NEW GL OBAL E CONOM IC ORD ER
Political and economic identities or ideologies can have a strong
influence on national behavior. Certainly, one can not explain the
Cold War without reference to the ideological conflict between the
democratic-capitalist identity of the United States and the totalitarian-
communist identity of the Soviet Union. In fact, George Kennan, a
realist to the core, based his “containment” doctrine on the authori-
tarian identity of the Soviet state. 19 In time, Kennan correctly pre-
dicted, the policy of containment would transform this identity and
hence the behavior of the Soviet state. Morgenthau also emphasized
the importance of identity. The theme of Scientific Man versus Power
Politics was that liberal democratic societies exhibited moral failure
when they did not recognize the evil nature (identity) of Nazi Ger-
many in the 1930s. 20 The sociopolitical nature of a society, the na-
tional ideology, and the political identity all contribute to a society’s
definition of its interests and influence its behavior. Realists disagree,
however, with the constructivist’s position that identity is the most
important or the only determinant of a nation’s foreign policy.
The state-centric interpretation of international political economy
(IPE) rejects a belief popular amongmany scholars, public officials,
and commentators that economic and technological forces have
eclipsed the nation-state and are creatinga global world economy in
which political boundaries and national governments are no longer
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important. It is certainly true that economic and technological forces
are profoundly reshapinginternational affairs and influencingthe be-
havior of states. However, in a highly integrated global economy,
states continue to use their power and to implement policies to chan-
nel economic forces in ways favorable to their own national interests
and the interests of their citizenry. These national economic interests
include receipt of a favorable share of the gains from international
economic activities and preservation of national autonomy. Move-
ment toward such regional arrangements as the European Union (EU)
and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) exemplifies
collective national efforts to reach these goals.
Many commentators correctly point out that the nation-state in the
last quarter of the twentieth century increasingly came under attack
from within and from without; both transnational economic forces

19
For Kennan’s views, see John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: ACritical
Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy (New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1982).
20
Morgenthau, Scientific Man vs. Power Politics.
21
For an early expression of this “end of the state” thesis, see Edward Hallett Carr,
Nationalism and After (London: Macmillan, 1945).
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