The Debate on International Political Economy

Adam Smith, whom Goddard, Roe, Passe-Smith, and Conklin characterize as the father of liberal economics, makes an argument against foolish protectionism, hence Realism, when saying that it would be unreasonable "to prohibit the importation of all foreign wines [to Scotland], simply to encourage the doing of claret and burgundy in Scotland" (Smith, 1996, p. 40). However, the simple fact that mercantilist attitudes still had power to influence his analysis is also observed within the fact that he considers it proper for Britain to have restricted direct foreign trade with Britain's colonies to British shipping, shutting such trade off particularly from Continental trading competitors; violators had their ships and cargoes confiscated.

A Realist position on economic growth is articulated in Hamilton's Report on Manufactures once it advocates federal government subsidization of entrepreneurial efforts. In an work to create the national economy from the new country, Hamilton calls for protectionist duties on products that would discourage development of domestic manufacturing, itself a Realist position. However, Hamilton also in particular calls for "encouragement of new inventions and discoveries, at home, and of the introduction to the United States of such as may perhaps were produced in other countries," by way of what he calls bounties and what these days would be referred to as a government patent, grant, or contract.

It would be pleasant to think how the principles of liberal internationalism, in particular the beneficently invisible hand of the impersonal marketplace, could override petty political rivalries and put all countries on an equal footing within the matter of foreign trade, permanent economic growth, and international/national security. Surely liberalism paints a additional agreeable picture of IPE than dependency theory, which makes neither dependent nor hegemonic actors look good.

The tough truth is, however, that there by no means has been an equal-footing condition in either economics or geopolitics. Moreover, it is tough not to notice that the thought of "equal" as presented theoretically bears smaller resemblance to real-world conditions, which are far from harmonious. Inside the area of free trade, some nations are because it were additional equal than others, or far more effectual in enforcing their preferences and/or controlling distribution of products and services. Economic growth proceeds at vastly numerous rates in industrialized and developing countries, which fosters triumphalism on one hand and envy on the other. All of this in turn affects international power relations, with economic calculations pitted against political ideologies or maybe religious fundamentalism. If one takes Realism being woefully inadequate to addressing the moral-ethical vagaries with the IPE, Realism however looks to offer probably the most realistic picture of how nation-states definitely behave.

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