International relations

Trade, (De)Globalisation, and the New Mercantilism

Module code: L2076A
Level 6
30 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework, Essay

This module interrogates the crises and tensions that have shaken today’s global trade system to the core. We:

• develop a critical International Political Economy (IPE) approach to explore how trade has been governed, conducted and increasingly contested over the past two decades
• examine the new instruments and alliances that are being forged to reshape the geographies of production, exchange, and investment
• assess the debate over a “new mercantilism”, and the seismic shift in the form and direction of capitalist globalisation this portends, as well as the limits to and possibilities for a more ethical and sustainable trade system.

Module learning outcomes

• Develop a systematic and critical understanding of the key actors and institutions as well as the values, interests, conflicts and crises that shape the contemporary global trading system.
• Employ and critically engage with the principal conceptual approaches to the study of global trade.
• Critically evaluate the problems and possibilities of existing, emerging, and alternative forms of global trade.