MSC International Political Economy

IR453: GLOBAL BUSINESS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

This course (available in the Autumn Term) examines the role of global business as an actor in international relations. It reviews the political and economic theories that seek to explain the rise of global business, paying attention in particular to International Relations and International Political Economy theories (realism, liberalism, Marxism), but also covering the main economic explanations of MNCs. Thereafter, the course examines the interaction between global business and states in international relations. This involves the study of corporate power and how to conceptualise it in IPE, the study of state-firm bargaining over investment decisions, and the regulation of global business by states and international governance institutions. The final part of the course considers the role that global business plays in selected global policy areas: economic development, environmental protection and human rights.

LSE course information for IR453.

PhD supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students working in international political economy or international relations, with a focus on global environmental politics, the role of business and other nonstate actors in world politics, global governance, or other areas related to my current research interests. 

If you are interested in pursuing a PhD project under my supervision, you will need to apply through the LSE Graduate Admissions Office. Further guidance on the application process is available here. You may wish you send me an outline of your research project in advance of your formal application, although I cannot promise to give detailed feedback on such outlines.

Your research outline (ca. 3-4 pages) should ideally address the following questions:

  • What is your central research question?

  • How do you propose to answer this question? What theoretical and/or empirical work do you expect to undertake (e.g. case studies)?

  • How does your research project relate to relevant academic debates or literatures in International Political Economy or International Relations? What likely contribution do you expect to make to such debates or literatures?

  • What research methodology do you expect to employ in your project?

Image credit: Dalhousie University

Image credit: Dalhousie University

Please remember that a PhD thesis project is a peculiar piece of academic writing, lasting three to four years, and that not all research questions or ideas are suitable for a PhD project. It is best to avoid speculative, future-oriented or policy-focused questions (e.g. "Is the precautionary principle going to play a more important role in future world politics?" or "Should Europe aim for greater energy independence?").

Recently supervised PhD projects:

Marian Feist: "Learning in International Negotiations: The Strategic Use of Lessons in Post-Agreement Climate Finance Politics" (2018).

Philip Schleifer: "Whose Rules? The Politics and Diffusion of Transnational Sustainability Governance" (2014)

Robyn Klingler-Vidra: "All Politics is Local: Sources of Variance in the Diffusion of Venture Capital Policies" (2014)

Kai Monheim: "The 'Power of Process': The Impact of Process Management on Multilateral Negotiations" (2013) - Winner of 2014 'Meditations-Wissenschafts-Preis'.

Michael Bloomfield: "Collaboration through contestation: explaining the causes and consequences of variation in corporate responses to civil society pressure within the US market for gold jewellery" (2012)

Richard Campanaro: "Socio-Ecological Coevolution: an ecological analysis of the historical development of international systems in the circumpolar Arctic" (2012) (co-supervised with Barry Buzan)

Nico Jaspers: "Silent Divergence: Explaining Nanotechnology Risk Governance in the US and the EU" (2011)

Jonas Meckling: "The Global Rise of Carbon Trading. Transnational Business Networks in Global Environmental Politics" (2009)

Carola Kantz: "Precious Stones, Black Gold and the Extractive Industries: Accounting for the Institutional Design of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives" (2009)

Christopher Wright: "Environmental Governance in International Banking: Exploring the Emergence of the Equator Principles" (2008)