Of intellectual monocultures and the study of IPE

The intellectual monoculture that we currently observe in American IPE, based upon an allegiance to liberalism, rationalism and quantitative methodology, is a misguided departure from the pluralism that once defined the discipline. This monoculture is evident in the way we currently train graduate students in IPE and in the gatekeeping practices of the leading international relations journals. Fortunately, there is a continued diversity of work appearing in other fora from that surveyed by Maliniak and Tierney, primarily in book form and in alternative journals. The absence of cross-fertilization from these alternative outlets to the high status journals and graduate syllabi portends poorly for the future of the field. Like agricultural crops susceptible to devastating collapse for lack of diversification, an intellectual monoculture in IPE may be unable to effectively respond to the dramatic changes and critical emerging issues in the world economy today.