Global Political Economy - JPM950

• Title: Global Political Economy
• Guaranteed by: Department of International Relations (23-KMV)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2024
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: 24 / unknown (24)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Additional information: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=3184
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: doc. Michal Parízek, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): doc. Michal Parízek, Ph.D.
• Class: Courses not for incoming students
• Incompatibility : JPM658
• Is incompatible with: JPM658

Annotation

In this course, students examine the relationship between international economics and international politics. How do economic relations among states and non-state actors impact on international and domestic politics, and how do political concerns of states impact on the flows of goods, services, and finance across the globe? Where does power reside in global politics and economy? Is globalization in retreat? We discuss the relationship between markets and political institutions, and we cover such topics as international trade and its political consequences, international finance, globalization and de-globalization, geoeconomics, and the political economy of global crises.

Last update: Parízek Michal, doc., Ph.D. (15.09.2024)

Aim of the course

The specific objectives of the course are:

• to help students understand the relationship between international economics and politics
• to familiarize students with the fundamentals of economic reasoning in matters of international economic relations and understand some of the most widely used models of international trade
• to help students appreciate and understand the key challenges of the globalized economy and their connection with the revived prominence of geopolitics, especially in the adversarial relationship between the U.S. and China
• to familiarize students with the key contemporary debates on global economic conflicts
• to motivate students to study the subject matter further

Last update: Parízek Michal, doc., Ph.D. (15.09.2024)

Course completion requirements

Successful completion of the course requires students’ active participation and interest in the subject matter. Formally, the requirements are:

• after each session, read carefully all the assigned compulsory readings and answer the questions of the homework assignments on the course Moodle site (accounts for 30% of the grade)
• pass the final exam based on the classes and assigned readings (accounts for 70% of the grade)

I very much recommend that students regularly attend the classes, though doing so is not a formal requirement for course completion.

The following standard Faculty grading scheme is applied:

• 100-91: A
• 90-81: B
• 80-71: C
• 70-61: D
• 60-51: E
• 50 or less: F (fail)
• at least 51% need to be reached in each core grade component, so both in the regular assignments and in the final exam individually

Last update: Parízek Michal, doc., Ph.D. (15.09.2024)

Literature

Class textbook:

• John Ravenhill, ed., Global Political Economy, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)

Additional readings:

• Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
• Farrell, Henry, and Abraham Newman. Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy. (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2023).
• Francis Fukuyama, State-Building : Governance and World Order in the 21st Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004).
• Robert Gilpin, Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order (Princeton University Press, 2001).
• David Held and Anthony G. McGrew, eds., Governing Globalization: Power, Authority and Global Governance (Cambridge: Polity, 2002).
• Paul R. Krugman and Maurice Obstfeld, International Economics, 6th ed. (Boston: Addison Wesley, 2003).
• Thomas H. Oatley, International Political Economy (Boston: Longman, 2012).
• Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents, 1 edition (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002).

Last update: Parízek Michal, doc., Ph.D. (15.09.2024)

Teaching methods

In principle, this is a lecture course, so a sizable lecture component will be present in the classes. Its purpose is to explore analytically the nature of each of the topics. However, regular in-class activities form a key part of the learning experience.

The use of AI-powered tools, including generative AI, is permitted in the course. However, note that even powerful generative AI models are language models only, there is no guarantee that what they "say" about Global Political Economy matters has a close connection to reality. Further, note that AI is most likely only going to be useful for your own preparatory work. The final exam takes place without access to the internet.

Last update: Parízek Michal, doc., Ph.D. (24.09.2024)

Syllabus

1. Introduction and global political economy
2. Economics 101: supply, demand and markets
3. Economy, politics, and society
4. International trade and comparative advantage
5. Trade, its distributive consequences, and domestic politics
6. International finance
7. Rising powers and the challenge to the liberal international order?
8. Globalization backlash
9. COVID-19, Ukraine war, and de-globalization
10. Information age and the 4th industrial revolution
11. State-building, development, and poverty
12. Global political economy in the age of geoeconomics; conclusion

Last update: Parízek Michal, doc., Ph.D. (15.09.2024)

Registration requirements

This course is exclusively available to the students of the programme MAIN - Master in International Relations. Students of other programmes, or exchange students, cannot take it.

Last update: Parízek Michal, doc., Ph.D. (15.09.2024)