ABSTRACT

IPE textbooks usually inform students that modern IPE builds on classical political economy debates from pre-1945 period involving the Western thinkers. This chapter highlights some ways to widen the historical roots of the field beyond Western thought, outlining four kinds of contributions made by non-Western thinkers to debates about IPE issues before 1945: 1) those that “localized” the three well-studied Western classical ideologies of economic liberalism, mercantilism, and Marxism; 2) those that developed similar ideologies but independently; 3) those that developed different kinds of ideologies; and 4) those who influenced Western thought (either directly or indirectly). Incorporating these contributions to the history of IPE thought can help contemporary IPE scholars to begin to tell a more complete global intellectual history and avoid Eurocentrism as well as strengthen efforts to foster greater mutual understanding and “global conversations” among IPE scholars across the world today.