IR 211 International Political Economy (Fall 2026)
Assoc. Prof. M. Gürsan Şenalp
Day/Time: Thu 12.30 – 15.20
Room: Z15-IB
Office: 320-IB / Office Hours: Mon 11.30-12.30
Email: gursan.senalp@atilim.edu.tr
Phone: +90 (312) 586 8653
About the Course: What is International Political Economy?
International Political Economy (IPE) is the rapidly growing multidisciplinary social science field that seeks to understand international problems through a synergy of disciplines including economics, international relations, and political science. In other words, IPE is defined as a set of interconnected international problems that cannot be usefully understood or analyzed as either international relations/politics alone or international economics alone. Although IPE originally developed as a subfield of international relations, it has in recent years taken on a life of its own, particularly since the globalization of the 1990s and 9/11. Traditional IPE includes analysis of the political economy of international trade, international finance, North–South relations, transnational and multinational corporations, and hegemony. IPE has been broadened in recent years as many scholars have sought to establish a “new” IPE that is less centered on international politics and the problems of the nation-state and more concerned with the issues raised by globalization.
Today, however, the research agenda in IPE must be reframed in light of the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the AI revolution, which have unfolded alongside a wider poly-crisis—ecological, economic, geopolitical/military, and social reproduction. This course therefore approaches globalization as a crisis-ridden and uneven process marked by deepening global inequalities, migration and refugee crises, and the worldwide rise of far-right and fascist political tendencies. Rather than assuming that globalization has simply retreated, we examine how it continues by other means. In particular, we analyze how globalization is reconstituted through militarized accumulation and accumulation by repression—through austerity, debt, securitization, surveillance, borders, digital infrastructures, extractivism, and AI-driven systems of warfare as it is now unfolding in Palestine. The main theme of the course is thus globalization and its impacts in the age of poly-crisis.
Course Objectives
IPE directly impacts your life in many ways. The rise of authoritarian politics and demise of personal freedoms, the size of your pocketbook and your overall finances, the quality of your environment, your overall health, war, peace, and the future of the world. Exploring current issues in the international political economy and their sometimes hidden ideological foundations will enable you to understand how powerful political and economic forces affect your life, and how you, in turn, impact the world. This course is designed primarily for undergraduate students in International Relations and Economics, and welcomes students from other disciplines. Considering their different backgrounds and skills in this course we will discuss events as they unfold before our eyes and you will learn how to better understand the world we live in. The goal of the course is to provide you with the basic knowledge to gain literacy in international political economy with which you can then apply in your daily lives.
Textbook(s)
· Andrew Heywood and Ben Whitham, Global Politics, Bloomsbury, 3rd Edition, 2023.
· Robert O’Brien and Mark Williams, Global Political Economy, 6th Edition, 2020.
Course Structure, Requirements and Grades:
Class meets roughly three hours once a week. The format will include a discussion of weekly current events, lectures, discussion of course readings, and films. It is absolutely critical that students arrive at each class meeting having completed the assigned reading. The course will have a midterm and a final exam. The exams will be based on lectures and readings.
Midterm Exam: 30 %
HWs / Research Project: 20 %
Final Exam: 50 %
Midterm and Final Exam
Exams will be based on readings and lectures. They may include MC questions and short written responses along with long essay questions.
Attendance/Participation/Preparation
Each student must participate in class and may be called upon at any time to demonstrate that they have completed the reading for that particular week.