Inside global financial networks

Abstract

The commentaries on this forum’s anchor article, ‘China’s Integration into the Global Financial System: Toward a State-led Conception of Global Financial Networks’, examine how the state is shaping global financial networks (GFNs). In response to these reviews, this article discusses three common themes that bind the different commentaries: (1) different types of agency, power, and the rise of new actors; (2) the methodology behind studying state-led GFNs; and (3) the structural question of ‘Chinese exceptionalism’ as a mode of capitalism. Overall, this article affirms that the state remains central to our understanding of competitive hierarchies and firm behavior in financial networks.