After the end of World War II, the United States, by far the dominant economic and military power at that time, joined with the surviving capitalist democracies to create an unprecedented institutional framework. By the 1980s many contended that these institutions--the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (now the World Trade Organization), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund--were threatened by growing economic nationalism in the United States, as demonstrated by increased trade protection and growing budget deficits.

In this book, Robert Gilpin argues that...

This book is the eagerly awaited successor to Robert Gilpin's 1987 The Political Economy of International Relations, the classic statement of the field of international political economy that continues to command the attention of students, researchers, and policymakers. The world economy and political system have changed dramatically since the 1987 book was published. The end of the Cold War has unleashed new economic and political forces, and new regionalisms have emerged. Computing power is increasingly an impetus to the world economy, and technological developments have changed...

Many individuals proclaim that global capitalism is here to stay. Unfettered markets, they argue, now drive the world, and all countries must adjust, no matter how painful this may be for some. Robert Gilpin, author of the widely acclaimed Political Economy of International Relations (Princeton, 1987), urges us, however, not to take an open and integrated global economy for granted. Rather, we must consider the political circumstances that have enabled global markets to function and the probability that these conditions will continue. Gilpin's new book amounts to a magisterial...

As this study traces the history of the dramatic intra-scientific conflict over nuclear weapons which has developed since World War II, it analyzes the politically relevant ideas, attitudes, and behavior of those scientists who have been influential in the formulation of American policy toward nuclear weapons. The author contends that the emergence of the scientist into the mainstream of American political life is one of the great events of our history. As he assays the situation, he emphasizes the growing need for effective measures for integrating scientist-advisers into national...

Charles de Gaulle has often warned France and other European nations of the threat they face from advanced scientific and technological countries such as the United States and the Soviet Union. Robert Gilpin examines this "technological gap," which France fears, and the efforts France is making to introduce change and efficiency into her science administration. He discusses the gap as it affects all of Europe, and suggests that if western European nations are unable to form a common European administration of science policy, and remain the "main world importers of discoveries and exporters...