Dr Marta Soprana CBG.8.10

This course is available on the BSc in International Relations, BSc in International Relations and Chinese, BSc in International Relations and History and BSc in Politics and International Relations. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

This course has a limited number of places (it is capped).

Some background knowledge of international political economy, such as that provided in IR206 International Political Economy, will be useful to students taking this course.

This course provides the basis for understanding the current trends in international trade, including the growth of unilateralism and protectionist pressures and the crisis of the world trading system. This understanding will be base on:

• the intellectual history of free trade and how this has shaped and continues to shape policy;
• an understanding of trade theory;
• background on changes in the nature of trade and investment in the 21st century;
• an analyses the structural tensions in the trading system as well as the domestic economic and political factors shaping policy;
• knowledge of the underlying trends towards the use of preferential and plurilateral rather than multilateral cooperation in trade and investment
• the core issues in current trade negotiations;
• and thus an understanding of the current fundamental challenges facing the international trading system.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours across Winter Term.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the WT.

The formative essay is 1,500 words.

• Heydon. K and Woolcock. S (eds) (2012) The Ashgate Research Companion to International Trade Policy, HF 1379 A 82: (e-book and hard copies available).
• Hoekman. B and Kosteki. (2009) The Political Economy of the World Trading System HF 1359 H69 (e-book available but reasonably price in paperback so something to purchase).
• Martin. L (ed) (2014) Oxford Handbook of The Political Economy of International Trade, (available as an e-book).

Take-home assessment (100%) in the ST.