POLITICAL ECONOMY The Emergence of the global political economy

 THE EMERGENCE OF THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

Given the current fascination with globalization and its possible implications, it is worth keeping in mind that the processes associated with globalization have been ongoing for centuries. They are not entirely novel or recent in origin. The book focuses on the emergence of a global political economy as early as the sixteenth century although even this development had been preceded by centuries of changes leading up to a closer economic integration of eastern and western Eurasia. Several themes are addressed. The political economic dynamics for the global system can be generalized but they are not timeless. Circumstances helped create a global political economy and, once created, it continues to evolve and undergo transformation. Some west Europeans played an important part in the emergence of the system but the ascendance of western Eurasia in the system cannot easily be attributed primarily to various “superior” attributes of western Europe. The major exceptions to this generalization are naval technology and military weaponry but it is also easy to exaggerate the role played by military superiority. A number of other factors were just as critical, if not more so. Once the system was created, a major dynamic for 

 political change focused on a process of challenge developed. Although we do not

always recognize the continuity of this process, the major wars of the past 500 years

have been caught up and focused on questions of leadership succession in the global

political economy. While we cannot assume that this process will go on forever, it is

possible to sketch out its general parameters, and to use the historical tendencies to

speculate about the future of the global political economy. The argument is not simply

that the system is or has been governed by a cycle of periods of economic-politicalmilitary primacy, and leadership succession attempts, although that has been the case, but also that there are aspects of the dynamics that suggest a potential for further fundamental transformation of the global political economy.

William R.Thompson is Professor of Political Science at Indiana University and a former co-editor of International Studies Quarterly (1994–98). He has previously taught at the University of California, Riverside, Claremont Graduate University, and Florida State University with visiting appointments at the Universities of Arizona and Minnesota.

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