ABSTRACT

The fascinating documentation of changes in American IPE (international political economy) by Maliniak and Tierney, and Benjamin Cohen’s work on the transatlantic divide in the field – published in RIPE in 2007 and as part of his 2008 book (Cohen, 2007, 2008) – provide an appropriate occasion for reflection on the history of the IPE field and where it stands now. My reflections are highly personal, since I was ‘present at the creation’ of the field in its present form, and since in recent years my work has addressed broader questions of international relations and has diverged from mainstream IPE. In comparing the old and the new IPE, I comment on what seems to be missing from contemporary work and on what I regard as promising directions for future scholarship.