What’s missing when we think about Global Political Economy?

Abstract

Global Political Economy (GPE) and especially International Political Economy (IPE) remain relatively silent about three critical and nested issues: the nature of empire as a form of global order, control over the enterprises that structure much quotidian life, and the distribution of profits. Each issue in different ways also highlights heterogeneity across units and actors in the GPE, providing clues to what should be Critical Political Economy’s object of investigation: the structure of power in the global economy. This commentary connects empire, corporate control and the sources of profits to show the connections in the GPE across macro, meso- and micro-levels and how these relate to the racial and gender hierarchies sustaining that structure of power, in the hope of opening up more systematic debate and treatment.