The IPE of money revisited

Some two decades after an earlier review essay of mine, the time seems ripe to revisit the international political economy (IPE) of money. How has the study of money evolved in more recent years, and what is the understanding of international monetary politics today? The main message of this essay is – to be blunt – disappointment. Research has become increasingly insular and introspective, largely detached from what goes on in the real world. Two parallel developments are responsible, both reflective of wider trends in mainstream IPE. First is a steep decline of interest in broader systemic issues, as the pendulum has swung sharply toward the domestic level of analysis. And second is a marked loss of interest in practical policy solutions. In lieu of worries about problems to be solved, scholarship today tends to be driven more by curiosity about puzzles to be explained. The roots of these twin developments trace back, above all, to the framing effect of epistemology – the demanding methodological standards that mainstream IPE has set for itself. The fault lies, first and foremost, with the excessive priority given to formal scientific method.