This course aims to introduce you to the core debates and empirical issue-areas of contemporary Global Political Economy (GPE), and to develop your research and critical analysis skills in the study of GPE. It is a continuation of PSIR 305 International Political Economy. After a brief introduction to the field of GPE and its evolution, we will then examine a range of different problems in the global economy, from the international trade system and internationalization of production to the challenges of global finance, international development, and the emerging global order. Most academic representations of current international economic issues tend to treat them as purely economic problems and to ignore their political aspects. One of the main objectives of this course will be to challenge such approaches by insisting on the political dimensions of the international economy, as well as on the effects of economic processes on international politics. Therefore, the course will question the division of the political and the economic, suggesting that the very effort to define them as distinct domains is itself a political act.