US-China relations and the liberal world order:Contending elites, colliding visions?

The future of liberal internationalism will be influenced increasingly by the re-emergence of China as a major power on the world stage and by the way the United States is reacting to China's growing influence. In this article, we discern three possible scenarios: one of inevitable conflict, one of gradual co-optation and a hybrid scenario of coexistence. We argue that in order to understand the development of the Sino-US relationship and the sometimes-contradictory outcomes and dilemmas this generates, we need to take into account the social and domestic sources of foreign policy within these two major powers, and the distinctive state–society models that they represent. Crucially, this includes how the domestic political economy is dynamically interrelated with the global political economic context. In our approach, foreign policy elites form a key nexus here and a vital prism through which to analyse foreign policy strategies. From this critical political economy perspective, we will describe how China's re-emergence as a world power is partly shaped by its distinctive ‘statist’ state–society model, to then analyse US strategy towards rising China through the lens of the close nexus between America's corporate elite and the state. In our concluding section we will return to the three scenarios. Based on the findings presented, and in light of the radical shift that seems to be occurring due to the Trump presidency, we will reflect on the likelihood of these scenarios, the future of the liberal world order and conclude with a research agenda

The European capitalist class and the crisis of its hegemonic project

More than any other area in the world Europe has over the past three decades witnessed a process of transnational capitalist class formation, representing the most transnationally oriented sections of European capital and overlaying national capitalist classes. Transnationalization here does not imply the withering away of national states and national social formations but rather the rise of relations across national borders and the constitution of actors that operate not ‘above’ the national state, but in different national contexts simultaneously. It is from this perspective that we can understand how transnational class agency has helped to transform the project of European integration into an ever more undiluted neoliberal project. The essence of this hegemonic class project has been the creation of a transnational space for capital in which the latter’s rule is established precisely by preserving the formal sovereignty of the member states while subordinating their democratic governance to the dictates of the single market. The inherent contradictions of this project have been exposed and exacerbated by the current Eurozone crisis, which is endangering more than the single currency but threatens to derail the neoliberal project that has been spearheaded by the European capitalist class over the past three decades. While its steadfast adherence to the current austerity drive may be seen as shortsighted, there are no attractive alternatives for the European capitalist class

Transnational Capitalism and the Struggle over European Integration

This book presents an analysis of the transnational social forces in the making of a new European socio-economic order that emerged out of the European integration process during the 1980s and 1990s. Arguing that the political economy of European integration must be put within the context of a changing global capitalism, Van Apeldoorn examines how European change is linked to global change and how transnational actors mediate these changes.Published version of EUI PhD thesis, 199