GDP Center Round-Up: Spring 2022 Global Economic Governance Book Talk Series

By Amanda Brown

The Spring 2022 Global Economic Governance Book Talk Series convened four distinguished scholars with recent books, spanning topics from oil politics and China’s escape from shock therapy, to the political economy of energy transitions and the globalization of patient capital.

Stephen B. Kaplan opened the series with a discussion on the political economy of Chinese finance in the Americas, while in March, Jeff Colgan presented on oil politics and the international order, arguing for a perception of the international order as a collection of multiple subsystems where no single power dominates. In the third session, Isabella Weber assessed how China has become deeply integrated into the world economy without wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism and, in May, Kathryn Hochstetler examined how the political economy of climate change set Brazil and South Africa on different tracks for achieving energy transitions.

Below, see a summary and recording for each webinar in the Spring 2022 Global Economic Governance Book Talk Series:

Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas

Kicking off the series in February, Stephen B. Kaplan, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University, discussed his new book Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas. 

During the talk, Kaplan argued China’s global finance and investment provide borrowing countries with more policy autonomy and room to maneuver in the face of capital exits from Western and private capital. He identifies three primary ways China’s global finance is unique: its long-term maturity structure, high risk tolerance and lack of policy conditionality. Kaplan concluded by discussing the outlook for Chinese financing in Latin America in COVID-19 and post-pandemic era, including the growing importance of alternative financing mechanisms. Read the webinar blog summary.

Partial Hegemony: Oil Politics and International Order

In March, Jeff Colgan, Associate Professor of Political Science at Brown University and Director of the Climate Solutions Lab at the Watson Institute of Public and International Affairs, presented his latest book, Partial Hegemony: Oil Politics and International Order.

Colgan first underscored the book’s relevance to current affairs, especially with regard to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. Colgan also presented empirical details to back the thesis of the book by first focusing on the oil price volatility before and after the Oil Shock of the 1970s. According to Colgan, in contrast to the ongoing debate on whether the US’s hegemony is waning, the international order is governed by a ‘partial hegemony.’ The most influential state maintains dominance in the most fundamental subsystems of the order, such as currency or the military, but the hegemony is partial, as seen in the oil subsystems. Read the webinar blog summary. 

How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate

Next, in April, Isabella Weber, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, led a discussion on her recent book, How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate. 

In her book, Weber attempts to address one key question: what are the economics of China’s reform approach? In answering this, she confronts the fiercely debated question within 1980s China of how to introduce market mechanisms into China’s command economy. In her discussion, Weber characterized China’s “escape from shock therapy” as the adoption of the dual-track system which shaped the nation’s trajectory and facilitated economic growth. She also acknowledged how relevant the discussion is, as the world faces the economic tolls of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the webinar blog summary.

Political Economies of Energy Transition: Wind and Solar Power in Brazil and South Africa

Closing out the series in May, Kathryn Hochstetler, Professor and Head of the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science, joined to present her recent book, Political Economies of Energy Transition: Wind and Solar Power in Brazil and South Africa. 

Global climate solutions depend on low-carbon energy transitions in developing countries, but little is known about how these transitions will unfold. With a focus on Brazil and South Africa, Hochstetler’s new book reveals how choices about wind and solar power in Brazil and South Africa respond to four different constellations of interests and institutions, or four simultaneous political economies of energy transition. Ultimately, she argues energy transitions will vary greatly between countries, as transitions respond and rely on an array of national political economies, not just the energy sector. Read the webinar summary.

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