ABSTRACT
Susan Strange called for a 'radical desegregation' and dismantling of artificial disciplinary barriers separating international economics, politics and law: 'These barriers need to be overthrown, broken up, and done away with'. Indeed, it will be argued that, paradoxically, Strange reproduced the separation between economics and politics in her analysis of the global political economy. As a consequence, she remained in the 'no-man's land' between economics and politics where she was either unable or unwilling to take the steps involved in developing a critical understanding of human agency and of transformative and emancipatory politics. Today many students of historical materialism and critical theory are centrally concerned with identifying potential sources of transformation in international relations. To begin, critical theory was differentiated from problem-solving theory, the former being transformative and emancipatory in purpose. Strange was clearly a problem solver, but she was more. She was very much concerned with understanding outcomes and finding solutions to problems plaguing the global political economy.
