IR Worldview Inventory

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Reference profile · Thinker

Susan Strange

International political economy and structural power

Public posture

This profile centers structural power in production, finance, knowledge, and the changing authority of states and markets.

Core works on structural power, markets, finance, and diffused authority in the coded source record.

This reading covers 1988–1998. It does not attribute a present-day position from older works.

The argument

Strange asks who can shape the conditions within which other people, firms and governments must act. A territorial map of states can miss authority exercised through markets, credit and control of knowledge.

How it works

Her structural account follows security, production, finance and knowledge rather than assuming that all consequential authority lies with governments. A relationship called interdependence may contain unequal dependence: one side has alternatives that the other lacks.

Coding record
Scope: FoundationReviewed 13 Jul 2026Version 2

Position in the field

The mark is the coded public posture, computed through the same projection as every Foundation result.

Evidence

Support by dimension

Each dimension shows its interpretation and a supporting note. Open the source detail for the full evidence. Raw coding coefficients stay in the Methods record.

Security rivalry partial

Security is one structure of power, but not automatically the dominant one.

Frames security, production, finance, and knowledge as structures of power.

Sources and full evidence

  • Frames security, production, finance, and knowledge as structures of power.

    Canonical work · Tier 3 · States and Markets (Basil Blackwell; Bloomsbury Academic edition page, 1988)

Institutions and rules partial

Formal rules matter less than structural power and non-state authority.

Supports the coding of diffused authority, structural power, and distributive consequences.

Sources and full evidence
Domestic politics sparse

Domestic and international authority are entangled, though this is not her primary coding axis.

Supports the coding of diffused authority, structural power, and distributive consequences.

Sources and full evidence
Identity and legitimacy sparse

Not central to the framework used here.

Supports the coding of diffused authority, structural power, and distributive consequences.

Sources and full evidence
Markets and dependence strong

Production, finance, knowledge and non-state structural power define her worldview.

Frames security, production, finance, and knowledge as structures of power.

Sources and full evidence

  • Frames security, production, finance, and knowledge as structures of power.

    Canonical work · Tier 3 · States and Markets (Basil Blackwell; Bloomsbury Academic edition page, 1988)

  • Supports the coding of diffused authority, structural power, and distributive consequences.

    Canonical work · Tier 3 · The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge University Press; preview PDF, 1996)

  • Provides additional support on finance, volatility, and structural consequences.

    Canonical work · Tier 3 · Mad Money (University of Warwick; working paper PDF, 1998)

Restraint and advantage sparse

The framework is diagnostic rather than grand-strategic.

Supports the coding of diffused authority, structural power, and distributive consequences.

Sources and full evidence
Order and justice partial

Her work is sensitive to hierarchy, volatility and who benefits from the system.

Supports the coding of diffused authority, structural power, and distributive consequences.

Sources and full evidence

Sources

Works behind this reading

  1. Canonical work · Tier 3States and Markets — Susan StrangeBasil Blackwell; Bloomsbury Academic edition page, 1988
  2. Canonical work · Tier 3The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy — Susan StrangeCambridge University Press; preview PDF, 1996
  3. Canonical work · Tier 3Mad Money — Susan StrangeUniversity of Warwick; working paper PDF, 1998

Disputed readings

  • She continues to see state power, especially U.S. structural power, as real.
  • She also argues that authority has diffused sharply toward non-state actors.

Revisions

  1. v112 Jul 2026Created as a non-public research draft.
  2. v213 Jul 2026Published after second-person evidence review against the approved source pack.

See an error in this coding? Send the public source and disputed dimension through the corrections page. Accepted corrections appear under Revisions.

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