Reconstructing Embedded Liberalism: John Gerard Ruggie and Constructivist Approaches to the Study of the International Trade Regime

In 1982, John Gerard Ruggie published a study of the postwar international trade and monetary regimes entitled ‘International Regimes, Transactions and Change: embedded liberalism in the postwar economic order’ (International Regimes, Transactions and Change).1 Against the prevailing idea that the postwar international economic order was ‘orthodox liberal’ in character, Ruggie argued on the contrary that it was characterized by a political commitment to what he called ‘embedded liberalism’.