ECTS:

5

Code:

ΚΥ0705

Cycle / Level:

Undergraduate

Compulsory / Optional:

Compulsory

Teaching Period:

Winter

Course Content:

This course explores the multiple political and economic dimensions of the international economic system. During the last two decades, the astonishing developments in digital and telecommunications technology, combined with the increasing deregulation of markets on a global scale, brought about considerable changes in the nature, structure and intensity of global corporate competition and international political economy.

Many political economists and social scientists are referring to an alleged new phenomenon, “globalization”, characterized by an ongoing loss of power of the nation-state to formulate and apply effective economic policies, a reinforcement of the role of international markets and multinational companies, and the gradual emergence of institutions of global governance.

Through a careful and well-documented consideration of long-term international trade, the international monetary and financial system, and the dynamics of foreign direct investment by multinational firms, this course is trying to theorize and clarify the historical trajectory and geographical structure of contemporary economic globalization and its contribution to growth and development of both rich and poor countries. Throughout the course, emphasis is given to the impact of the ongoing global crisis both on the advanced western countries and the developing countries.

Upon systematic attendance and completion of the course, students will be in a position to comprehend, analyse, explain, and assess: 1) The existing alternative theoretical approaches to the phenomenon of globalization. 2) The postwar developments in world trade, foreign direct investment, and international finance. 3) The causes of the current world economic crisis.