The United Kingdom in the World Economy

This course introduces competing interpretations and explanations of British domestic and foreign economic policy, drawing on academic work in the fields of international political economy, international economics, and the history of the UK (and to some extent the British Empire). The course focuses on four important aspects of the United Kingdom’s historical and current relationship to the world economy and how this relationship has shaped its foreign economic policies and foreign policies more broadly: The impact of industrialization on the United Kingdom’s role in the world economy; the role of international trade in British domestic and foreign economic policy; the causes and consequences of Brexit; and the role of the City of London in shaping the United Kingdom’s foreign economic policies in the post–1945 era, with an emphasis on how Brexit might affect this role. A focus on these issues will allow us to better trace, understand, and explain the relative rise and decline of the United Kingdom on the world stage over the course of approximately 250 years.