DIPL 4555 AA/ AB Economic Aspects of International Affairs

How does the Russia-Ukraine war impact countries who are trade dependent on them? Who benefited from the US-China trade war? Will Brexit bring prosperity to the UK? What role does trade and investment play in ending the Covid-19 pandemic? These issues in international economics directly impact international relations through (perceived) impact on jobs, wages, the environment and subsequent negotiations on labour, health, and environmental standards for trade. Producing effective policy requires understanding the underlying processes driving social and economic decisions, such as the decision for a person to migrate, or for a firm to offshore, and the impact of such decisions. Economists use frameworks that they test against real world data to understand the drivers of these decisions which then helps predict the impact of trade related policies. Since policies always have winners and losers, both within a country and across countries, we will also use a political economy lens to understand how trade policies can create conflict in international relations and how international institutions such as the World Trade Organization try to foster cooperation in the absence of a global enforcement mechanism. Throughout the course, we will use recent international issues to learn some key· economic principles and apply them to ongoing policy debates such as those mentioned above

DIPL 4555 AA/AB Economic Aspects of International Affairs

How does the Russia-Ukraine war impact countries who are trade dependent on them? Who benefited from the US-China trade war? Will Brexit bring prosperity to the UK? What role does trade and investment play in ending the Covid-19 pandemic? These issues in international economics directly impact international relations through perceived impact on jobs, wages, the environment and subsequent negotiations on labour, health, and environmental standards for trade. Producing effective policy requires understanding the underlying processes driving social and economic decisions, such as the decision for a person to migrate or for a firm to offshore, and the impact of such decisions. Economists use frameworks that they test against real world data to understand the drivers of these decisions which then helps predict the impact of trade related policies. Since policies always have winners and losers, both within a country and across countries, we will also use a political economy lens to understand how trade policies can create conflict in international relations and how international institutions such as the World Trade Organization try to foster cooperation in the absence of a global enforcement mechanism. Throughout this course, we will use recent international issues to learn some key economic principles; and apply them to ongoing policy debates such as those mentioned above

Economic Aspects of International Affairs

Is the USMCA belter than NAFTA? Who wins from a US-China trade war? Will Brexit bring prosperity to the UK? What role does international trade and investment play in a Covid -19 vaccine? These current issues in international economics directly impact international relations. Economists use frameworks to analyze the underlying processes driving social and economic decisions, such as the decision for a person to migrate or for a firm to offshore Once validated with empirical evidence, we can carefully apply the frameworks to ongoing situations to predict the impact of different policy options. Throughout the course, we will use mainly current international issues to learn some key economic principles and apply them to the problem at hand . We will also draw from the research and policy communities to gather empirical evidence to help us decide the answer to questions such as those above . Topics covered in the course include the impact of trade patterns on jobs and wages, global supply chains and their implication for the types of trade agreements and trade policies we see today, why firms offshore (foreign direct investment), immigration and its impact on host and sending countries, whether current trade agreements address labour and environmental standards, and more. In DIPL 4555, we will view these issues through economics lens to identify the mechanisms at work and to use this knowledge to evaluate and recommend policies

Economic Aspects of International Affairs

Who won from a US-China trade war? Will Brexit bring prosperity to the UK? What role does international trade and investment play in a Covid-19 vaccine? These current issues in international economics directly impact international relations. Economists use frameworks to analyze the underlying processes driving social and economic decisions, such as the decision for a person to migrate or for a firm to offshore. Once validated with empirical evidence, we can carefully apply the frameworks to ongoing situations to predict the impact of different policy options. Throughout the course, we will use mainly current international issues to learn some key economic principles and apply them to the problem at hand. We will also draw from the research and policy communities to gather empirical evidence to help us decide the answer to questions such as those above. Topics covered in the course include the impact of trade patterns on jobs anti wages, global supply chains and their implication for the types of trade agreements and trade policies we see today, why firms offshore (foreign direct investment), immigration and its impact on host and sending countries, whether current trade agreements address labour and environmental standards, and more. In DIPL 4555, we will view these issues through economics lens to identify the mechanisms at work and to use this knowledge to evaluate and recommend policies

Impact of the corona crisis on EU trade policy : our five cents to the debate

The resilience of the neoliberal free trade paradigmin the post-covid-19 erashould not be underestimated, at least in the short term. The EU’strade policy response hasso farbeen compliant with free trade philosophy and this has not faced serious challengesyet. Ostensibly protectionist measures are explicitly framed as temporary and exceptional and have been accompanied by liberalizing proposals. In the medium and longterm, paradigm change may happen. However, the authorswarn that suchshifts may not be as romantic as envisaged by deglobalization advocates, because also securitization looms as a realistic and dangerous alternative. While both deglobalization and securitization involve less trade, their political underpinnings are radically different

Global Political Landscape In The Time Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Realist, Liberal, And Constructivist Perspectives

The vast majority of international relations scholars interpret world politics in the era of Covid-19 pandemic in accordance with realism by emphasizing on conflicts and the tendency of states to pursue their national interests. However, contemporary global politics shows complexity that cannot be understood from single perspective. This article seeks to interpret world politics in the era of Covid-19 pandemic using eclecticism approach by incorporating realism, liberalism, and constructivism. This article argues that the lanscape of global politics in the era of Covid-19 pandemic is characterized by three different features; conflicts and the pursuit of national interests, international cooperations based on the mutual benefit, and solidarity to help others dealing with the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. This finding implies that understanding international relations requires interperspective collaboration instead of debates and maintaing theoretical exclusivism

Applying Classical Realism, Institutional Liberalism and Normative Theory to the Development and Distribution of a COVID-19 Vaccine

The development of a safe and effective Coronavirus vaccine has dominated the concerns of the international community over the course of the last six months. While the global community agrees on the importance of its development, it is not entirely clear how a vaccine will be distributed globally. The implications of which entity, whether a state or private company, develops a trusted vaccine first and how efficiently and equitably that vaccine is distributed are yet to be seen. Using Classical Realism, Institutional Liberalism, and Normative Theory, this paper seeks to discuss and analyze how the development of a vaccine will affect the international community. Specifically, using Classical Realism, this paper will address the implications of a global power developing a vaccine and how nationalism will affect that development and subsequent distribution. Secondly, through Interdependence Liberalism, this paper will analyze the prospects of vaccine distribution among states, the role of non- governmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations, as well as private industry, in vaccine development. Furthermore, through this lens this paper will analyze the interdependence of states regarding effective global containment of the coronavirus. Lastly, this paper will employ Normative Theory to analyze the obligation of major world powers, specifically the United States, to ensure a safe and effective vaccine is developed efficiently and distributed equitably. Evidently, containing and eliminating the coronavirus through a vaccine is both of paramount importance and laden with challenges. This paper aims to determine the most predictive theory relating to how the international system will react to the development of a coronavirus vaccine and what the implications and predicted outcomes are for the actors which comprise the global community

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Implications for Rural Economies

This paper presents a rapid assessment of current and likely future impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on rural economies given their socio-economic characteristics. Drawing principally on current evidence for the UK, as well as lessons from the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak and the 2007/8 financial crises, it outlines the likely key demand and supply effects, paying attention to the situation for agriculture as well as discussing the implications for rural communities. A distinction is made between the effects on businesses offering goods and services for out-of-home as opposed to in-home consumption. Gendered dimensions are also noted as likely business and household strategies for coping and adaptation. The paper concludes with a brief mapping of a research agenda for studying the longer-term effects of COVID-19 on rural economies

Infrastructuring Authoritarian Power: Arab-Chinese Transregional Collaboration Beyond the State

From discrimination against Chinese-read migrant workers, via intraregional competition for China’s favour, to collaboration on infrastructural megaprojects, vaccine development and digital surveillance techniques: Arab-Chinese relations in times of COVID-19 are complex and multi-layered. Yet, established regime-centric approaches often fail to see this complexity by almost exclusively focusing on questions of authoritarian regime collaboration. Such approaches not only ignore the diversity of involved actors and the inherently transregional nature of contemporary authoritarian power, but also bear the risk of reproducing binary notions of authoritarianism vs. liberal democracy that fundamentally ignore the latter’s coercive core. Recent work on the duality of infrastructure as both enabling global flows of goods and (re-)producing social hierarchies helps us overcome the methodological nationalism found in the majority of scholarship on authoritarian power. In this article, we provide a selective overview, through the prism of logistics and infrastructure, of Arab-Chinese authoritarian entanglements in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding authoritarian practices as territorially unbounded modes of governance, our objective is to develop a more in-depth and context-sensitive understanding of the transregionally connected mechanisms of (re-)producing authoritarian power. We argue that the pandemic constitutes a seemingly managerial opportunity for the intensified diffusion of authoritarian practices that both enable certain infrastructural politics and in turn are also rendered possible by them. This emphasis on infrastructure, understood as simultaneously fostering a global circulation of goods and capital, as well as reinforcing containment and facilitating new forms of managing and repressing public discontent, provides us with a helpful lens for the development of a truly transregional understanding of authoritarian collaboration. We discuss this argument based on selected examples of digital and physical infrastructure(s) in Arab-Chinese relations, and their embedding in global flows of capital.