Networks in International Political Economy

Abstract

Abstract Network analysis has been used extensively by social scientists for decades, but in the field of International Political Economy (IPE) its use has been relatively rare until recently. This chapter describes the general usefulness of modern complex network science to the study of IPE, before turning to a variety of topics where network analysis has been used as a descriptive and inferential tool. It focuses in particular on the use of network analysis within the study of international trade, the international financial system, networks of corporate ownership and control, and the study of global elites. It argues that many of the key concepts that IPE scholars use—such as structural power, complex/weaponized interdependence, embeddedness, regime complexes and institutional proliferation, as well as prominence and status—can be analyzed using modern network analytical tools, allowing researchers to employ a methodological and theoretical toolkit that more closely aligns with the core assumptions and arguments in IPE than traditional statistical methods that assume observational independence. It concludes by speculating that the usage of theoretical and methodological techniques based in network science are likely to continue growing in coming years as the size and scale of network-relational datasets increases, and as IPE becomes even more attuned to the potential value of network science for the field.