As always, many thanks to the loyal readers over the years who have brought about this magnificent showing. I literally couldn't have done it without you [sigh]. Of course, I am also grateful for newer readers who have entered the IPE Zone fold. Sometimes I honestly feel lazy about blogging, but I have somehow persevered long enough to get somewhere. Let this be a lesson to me...
That said, international political economy as a field is admittedly low in terms of general public awareness. Perhaps it's because the state of the art is stuck in what IPE stalwart Jerry Cohen calls "economistic mid-level theory" wherein economics envy has made us nearly as dull and formulaic as that certain other discipline. At any rate, I think this blog represents something of a change insofar as (a) it is not written by yet another white guy and (b) it is written by someone from the developing world. Just as there are certain problems with White People Trying to Dance, I believe there are issues with White People Trying to Pass Judgement on Us Coloured People. While I am not entirely bereft of colleagues from mainstream IPE, I remain something of an outsider because I don't suck up to anyone--least of all the practitioners of what I call "White PE" [sic].
To be truly worthy of the term "international," I believe you must have certain things like a diversity of backgrounds, ethnicities, experiences, genders, outlooks and perspectives. I'm sorry to say that mainstream IPE--alike much social science, to be fair--suffers from the phenomenon of Lots of Monolingual White Guys at American and British Universities Talking to Each Other and Calling It "International." See the academic blogosphere and the offenders are more plentiful than you can shake a stick at. Maybe it's precisely because I am not part of their echo chamber that I have gotten this far as an an outsider, but I do think we can go even farther.
With your help, we will!
