The World's Money: Expanding the Agenda for Research
| Published date | 01 December 1981 |
| Date | 01 December 1981 |
| Author | Susan Strange |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208103600401 |
| Subject Matter | Money and Markets |
SUSAN
STRANGE
The
world's
money:
expanding
the agenda
for
research
One
of
the
biggest changes of
recent
years
in
the
realm
of
ideas
and
in
the
way
people
habitually
think
about
the
human
condi-
tion
has
been the
move
toward
global
thinking.
Looking
back
over
even
the
last
ten
years,
it
seems
striking
how
easily
and
quickly people's
perceptions
have
changed.
As
individual
horizons
have
widened
with
television,
air
travel,
and
falling
communica-
tion
costs,
so
has
the
sense,
not
just
of
being
involved
willy-nilly
in
an
international
society,
but
of
participating
in
some
sort
of
world
system.
The
study
of
international
relations
has
become
that
of
world
politics.'
Global
ecology
has
become
a
widely
popu-
lar
theme,
and the
environmental
groups
and
parties
which
are
beginning
to
play
a
political role
in
so
many
countries probably
have
more
in
common
with
each
other
than
have
the
socialist
or
even
the
conservative
parties
they
challenge.
The
concept
of
the
'global
commons'
has
become
an
element
in
everyday
diplomacy,
as
has
that
of
'basic
human
needs' which
transcend political
fron-
tiers.
In
the
early
1970s
the
Club
of
Rome
started
what
is
now
an
established
industry
and
profession
of
world
modelling.
Budding
corporate
executives
in business
schools
around
the world
are
in-
Professor
of
International
Relations
at the
London
School
of
Economics
(and.
currently,
co-director with
Dr
Loukas
Tsoukalis
of
a
joint
LSE-Chatham
House
research
project
on
international
monetary
history
in
the
i97os).
i
Toward
a
politics
of
the
planet
earth (New York)
was
written
by
Harold
and
Margaret
Sprout
in
1971
at
a
time
when
the
conventional
texts
had
titles
like
'International
Politics'
or
'The
International
Political
System'.
Today,
the
word
'international'
is
fading
fast
from
college
booklists,
even
from
works
by
con-
servative,
'realist'
authors
like
Hedley
Bull
(The anarchical
society),
Bruce
Miller
(The
world
of
states),
or
Carey
Joynt
and
Percy
C.
Corbett
(Theory
and
reality
in
global
politics).
692
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
troduced
early
to
the
need for
global
marketing
and
corporate
strategic
planning
on
a
world
scale.
Unconscious
of
the
change
in
our
individual
thinking,
we
discuss
the
'world
food
problem'
or
'the
world
energy
problem.'
And
though
we
do
not
always
agree
on the
nature
of
these
problems,
still
less
on
their
solutions,
we
do
for
the
most
part
now agree
that
their
context
is
'the world.'
2
Lagging,
it
seems
to
me,
far
behind
this
transformation
of
mental
attitudes
we
find
the
study
of
money
in
the
international
sys-
tem.
Here,
the
issues
for
discussion
and
analysis have
not
changed,
for
the
most
part,
since
they
were
authoritatively
defined
in the
mid-'sixties
by
the
formidable
Chicago
School
partnership
between
the
late
Harry Johnson
and
Robert
Mundell.
They
in
turn
drew
on,
and
acknowledged, the
lead given
earlier
by
the
thirty-two
economists
who
met
under
the
chairmanship
of
Fritz
Machlup
at
Bellagio
in
1964.3
The
conventional
wisdom
laid
down
then
(and
generally
accepted ever
since)
was
that
the
major
issues
in
the
international
monetary
system
were
how
to
resolve
the
three
inter-
national
problems
of
adjustment,
liquidity,
and
confidence.
In
other
words,
how
the
system
was
to
arrange
for
adjustment
to
im-
balances in
payments accounts
between
national
monetary
sys-
tems;
how
much
liquidity
(ie,
credit)
should
be
provided
by
whom,
to
whom,
and
on
what terms
in
order
to
ease
this
adjust-
ment
process;
and
how
confidence
was
to be
maintained
in the
reserve
currencies
in
which
this
liquidity
would
be
denominated
so as
to avoid
disturbing
switches
from
one to
another.
As
Mundell
wrote,
'this
classification
of
problems
turned out
to
be
a
very
effec-
tive
first
step
in
disciplining
discussion of
the
different
plans
(for
[monetary]
reform).'
4
2
A
good
graphic
demonstration
can
be
found
in
The
state
of
the
world
atlas
(London
198i),
a
colourful paperback
of
'political'
world maps
compiled
by
Ronald
Segal
and
Michael
Kidron.
3
The
digest,
admirably
clear
and coherent,
of
their
discussions emerged
in
F.
Machlup
and
B.
Malkiel,
eds,
International
monetary
arrangements:
the prob-
lem
of
choice,
report
on
the
deliberations
of
an
international
study
group
of
32
economists
(Princeton
1964).
4
R.
Mundell,
'Problems
of
the
international
monetary
system'
in
R.
Mundell
and
Alexander
Swoboda,
eds,
Monetary problems
of
the
international
economy
(Chicago
1969).
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