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  3. Robert Gilpin

Robert Gilpin Quotes

Robert Gilpin was a scholar of international political economy and the professor emeritus of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He held the Eisenhower professorship. Gilpin specialized in political economy and international relations, especially the effect of multinational corporations on state autonomy.

Gilpin received his B.A. from the University of Vermont in 1952 and his M.S. from Cornell University in 1954. Following three years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, Gilpin completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, earning his doctorate in 1960. He joined the Princeton faculty in 1962 and earned tenure in 1967. He was a faculty associate of the Center of International Studies, and the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination.

Gilpin was a Guggenheim fellow in 1969, a Rockefeller fellow from 1967–68 and again from 1976–1977, and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the American Political Science Association, for which he served as vice president from 1984–1985, and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Gilpin describes his view of international relations and international political economy from a "realist" standpoint, explaining in his book Global Political Economy that he considers himself a "state-centric realist" in the tradition of prominent "classical realists" such as E. H. Carr and Hans Morgenthau. In the final years of his career, Gilpin focused his research interests in the application of "realist" thinking to contemporary American policies in the Middle East. Gilpin was openly critical of the politics surrounding the 2003 invasion of Iraq in his essay titled "War is Too Important to Be Left to Ideological Amateurs".Gilpin died on 20 June 2018. Wikipedia  

✵ 2. July 1930 – 20. June 2018
Robert Gilpin: 41 quotes1 like

Famous Robert Gilpin Quotes

“Powerful groups set constraints on and may even determine the actions of state authority. They constitute the society that is protected by the state; their particular concept of justice reigns. The definition and functioning of property rights tend to advance their interest and welfare. …the basic domestic function of the state is to define and protect property rights of individuals and groups. …The primary external function of the state is to protect the property rights and personal security of its members vis-à-vis the citizens and actions of other states.”

Robert Gilpin

War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“Trade is the oldest and most important economic nexus among nations. Indeed, trade along with war ha been central to the evolution of international relations.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Five, The Politics Of International Trade, p. 171

“A precondition for political change lies in the disjuncture between the existing social system and the redistribution of power toward those actors who would benefit most from a change in the system.”

Robert Gilpin

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“The clustering of technological innovation in time and space helps explain both the uneven growth among nations and the rise and decline of hegemonic powers.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Three, Dynamics Of Political Economy, p. 109

“The multinational corporation and international production reflect a world in which capital and technology have become increasingly mobile, while labor has remained relatively immobile.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Six, Multinational Corporations, p. 260

“Despite its increased dependence on the international economy, America continues to behave as if it were either a closed economy or the leader whom everyone else should automatically follow.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Ten, Emergent International Economic Order, p. 369

Robert Gilpin Quotes about the world

“The competitive nation-state system, with all its capacity for good and evil, is spreading in the Third World and is transforming that world.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Seven, Dependence And Economic Development, p. 304

“In the abstract world of American economists, equations run both ways; they believe that by changing the sign of a variable from plus to minus or from minus to plus or the price and quantity of x or y, the direction of historical movement can be reversed.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Eight, International Finance, p. 336

“The parallel existence and mutual interaction of "state" and "market" in the modern world create "political economy"; without both state and market there could be no political economy.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter One, Nature of Political Economy, p. 8

“Does the functioning of the world economy tend to concentrate wealth and power, or does it tend to diffuse it?”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter One, Nature of Political Economy, p. 14

“These two opposed forms of social organization, the modern state and the market, have evolved together through recent centuries, and their mutual interactions have become increasingly crucial to the character and dynamics of international relations in our world.”

Robert Gilpin

Introduction, p. 4
The Political Economy of International Relations (1987)

“One reason for the primacy of the market in shaping the modern world is that it forces a reorganization of society in order to make the market work properly. When a market comes into existence, as Marx fully appreciated, it becomes a potent force driving social change.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter One, Nature of Political Economy, p. 19

Robert Gilpin Quotes

“Until the modern era there was no single international system, but rather several international systems, with little or no contact with another.”

Robert Gilpin

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“A market is not politically neutral; its existence creates economic power which one actor can use against another.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter One, Nature of Political Economy, p. 23

“In short, the elimination of the financial legacy of Reaganomics could force the United States to make some exceptionally difficult choices indeed.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Nine, transformation Of The Global Economy, p. 349

“The opposing tendencies of concentration and spread are of little consequence in the liberal model of political economy.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Three, Dynamics Of Political Economy, p. 94

“Among the many factors that make a return to halcyon days of the first decades of the postwar era virtually impossible is the decline of clearly defined political leadership.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Ten, Emergent International Economic Order, p. 406

“Specialization makes the welfare of the society vulnerable to the market and to political forces beyond national control.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Five, The Politics Of International Trade, p. 189

“The world economy diffuses rather than concentrates wealth.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Three, Dynamics Of Political Economy, p. 85

“[In] the definition of international system… There is some "form of control" that regulates behavior and may range from informal rules of the system to formal institutions. …A view prevalent among many scholars of political science is that the essence of international relations is precisely the absence of control… a condition of anarchy…”

Robert Gilpin

War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“Japanese refer to Europe as a "museum" and America as a "farm."”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Ten, Emergent International Economic Order, p. 378

“The historical record suggests that the transition to to a new hegemon has always been attended by what I have elsewhere called hegemonic war.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Nine, transformation Of The Global Economy, p. 351

“The dreams of "leaving it up to the market" or of returning to a politically neutral gold standard cannot succeed because the nature of the monetary system has a profound impact on the interests of powerful groups and states. Affected groups and states will always try to intervene in the operation of the system to make it serve their interests.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Four, International Money matters, p. 170

“In many societies the domestic social costs of adjustment to changing patterns of comparative advantage are believed to outweigh the advantages of further trade liberalization.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Five, The Politics Of International Trade, p. 228

“How can the human race, whether for selfish or more cosmopolitan ends, understand and control the seemingly blind forces of history?”

Robert Gilpin

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“I was certain that I was not a Marxist, but I did believe firmly that a connection between economics and politics existed.”

Robert Gilpin

Preface, p. xii
The Political Economy of International Relations (1987)

“A prolonged and massive increase in aggregate wealth per capita has taken place over several centuries.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Three, Dynamics Of Political Economy, p. 100

“Both the control of territory and the political domination of one state over another have profound consequences for international economic relations. However… market power or economic power has itself become a principal means by which states seek to organize and manipulate the international division of labor to their own advantage.”

Robert Gilpin

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“Every dominant state, and particularly an empire, promotes a religion or ideology that justifies its domination over other states in the system.”

Robert Gilpin

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“Structuralism argues that a liberal capitalist world economy tends to preserve or actually increase inequalities between developed and less developed economies.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Seven, Dependence And Economic Development, p. 274

“One of the principal functions of war, and particularly… hegemonic war, is to determine the international hierarchy of prestige and thereby determine which states will in effect govern the international system.”

Robert Gilpin

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“It would be premature to suggest that the nation-state is dead or dying.”

Robert Gilpin

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“Many critics see international trade as a form of cultural imperialism that must be strictly controlled.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Five, The Politics Of International Trade, p. 172

“When once asked what was missing from his classic textbook, Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson is reported to have responded, "the class struggle."”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter One, Nature of Political Economy, p. 22

“Liberal economists conceive of societies as black boxes connected by exchange rates; as long as exchange rates are correct, what goes on inside the black box is regarded as not very important.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Ten, Emergent International Economic Order, p. 393

“The relative stability of the system is… largely determined by its capacity to adjust to the demands of the actors affected by changing political and environmental conditions.”

Robert Gilpin

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“The economic success of the Reagan Administration was largely dependent upon the pyramiding of massive debt and the siphoning of capital from the rest of the world.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Nine, transformation Of The Global Economy, p. 362

“Ultimately…the hierarchy of prestige in an international system rests on economic and military power.”

Robert Gilpin

War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“Through exploitation of its influence over global financial affairs, the United States has been able to cover the costs of its hegemonic position, preserve a false domestic prosperity, and mask the consequences of its relative political and economic decline.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Eight, International Finance, p. 308

“The core of the Marxist critique of capitalism is that although the individual capitalist is rational (as liberals assume), the capitalist system itself is irrational.”

Robert Gilpin

Source: The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), Chapter Two, Three Ideologies Of Political Economy, p. 37

“There is a pressing need to integrate the study of international economics with the study of international politics to deepen our comprehension of the forces at work in the world.”

Robert Gilpin

Introduction, p. 3
The Political Economy of International Relations (1987)

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