Marx, international political economy and globalisation

It is perhaps understandable that until the fall of the Soviet Union, the study of Marxism within the discipline of international relations was restricted largely to discussion of the state ideology Marxism-Leninism. The events of 1989, and the spectacular rise of the sub-discipline of international political economy in the context of globalisation, have, somewhat paradoxically, led to a resurgence of interest in critical, open forms of Marxism. Attempts to break away from the dogmatism of Marxism-Leninism whilst avoiding the complementary error of humanistic subjectivism have, of course, a long tradition in marxist thought. Consistent with the ‘open’, critical tradition is the work produced by, amongst others, Luxemburg, Korsch, Bloch, Rubin, Pashukanis, Rosdolsky, the Italian tradition of ‘autonomist’ Marxism and the work of contributors to debates on value and the state held in the early years of the Conference of Socialist Economists. This paper briefly outlines the contribution the ‘CSE tradition’ offers to the study of international relations and the fashionable analysis of globalisation.