Economic Nationalism in a Globalizing World (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)

Studies of foreign economic policy abound, but few bother to recognize that 'foreign' only makes sense in relation to the 'national' other. Eric Helleiner, Andreas Pickel, and their colleagues have put the 'national other' front and center in their analysis of Economic Nationalism in a Globalizing World. In doing so, they usefully demonstrate how economic nationalism takes a variety of policy forms and is quite distinct from the economic statist/realist positions so often caricatured in the literature. Contributions on topics as diverse as how nationalism affects post communist states, choice of economic integration strategy, how conceptions of security inform nationalism as an accumulation strategy in East Asia, and how nationalism and liberal policies can in fact work 'hand in hand' in a variety of contexts, together produce a volume of great theoretical insight. For years scholars have been calling for a constructivist voice in International Political Economy, one that takes identities and interests as codetermining. Economic Nationalism in a Globalizing World answers that call.

The authors in this rich volume demonstrate that economic nationalism and globalization not only can but do coexist. They link national identity and culture to countries' economic policies and thus make a contribution to our understanding of international political economy and to the broader study of nationalism.

This book offers new insights into the dynamics of globalization. It challenges the standard assumption that 'economic nationalism' is opposed to 'neoliberalism.' It shows how policymakers with nationalistic motivations may in some contexts pursue protection and other industrial policies, while in other contexts-in a different nation or in the same nation at a different time-they may embrace free-market neoliberal policies, using appeals to national identity as a way to mobilize support for neoliberal policies involving sacrifice from sectors that benefit from existing protection and subsidies. The case studies-ranging from the European Union to Russia to East Asia to New Zealand to Canada-are extraordinarily rich in showing the less obvious impacts of ideas and interests on economic policy.