The evolving global production structure: Implications for international political economy

In the late 1980s, Strange first conceptualized power in the international system in terms of four interrelated structures: security, knowledge, finance and production.1 She defined the production structure, the primary creator of wealth in the international system, as ‘the sum of all arrangements determining what is produced, by whom, by what method and on what terms’ (1988a: 62). The location of productive capacity, she contended, is far less important than the location of the people who make the key decisions on what is produced, where and how, and who designs, directs and manages to sell successfully on the world market. Viewing international wealth creation - and associated power - through this prism led Strange to some controversial conclusions about the international system. One of her conclusions was that US control over international production had increased despite a diminishing share of world trade; US hegemony was as strong as ever, only the will to exercise power had declined. She described the American Empire as a ‘corporation empire’ in which the culture and interests of corporations are sustained by an imperial bureaucracy of not only US government agencies but international organizations and regimes such as the OECD, IMF and GATT (1988b: 5).