ABSTRACT
International Political Economy (IPE) is a central component of the interdisciplinary field of International Studies. IPE’s current form is only about five decades old. Modern IPE combines primarily the relevant parts of the disciplines of Political Science and Economics. Contemporary IPE is a reconstitution of a field of study known as classical political economy that existed throughout the nineteenth century. IPE scholars who have accepted a threefold classification have differed on the theoretical and substantive content of the three schools of thought. In 1993 the division of IPE into multiple schools of thought was alive and well in the US Political Science establishment. In the United States IPE was usually located in the Political Science subfield of International Relations. The second major school of IPE thought, the British School, is more often located in an independent academic unit. Besides Anthropology, social constructionists have a significant presence in the social science discipline of Sociology as well as the interdiscipline of IPE.
