I fully support the idea that “our challenge today is to normalize more expansive ways of seeing and thinking that can offer the guidance, motivation, and hope needed to unite humans behind the colossal project of the Great Transition.” A worldview based on wide scales of time and space is essential for human survival and flourishing and, as David Christian emphasizes, recent developments in science and technology “have revolutionized our understanding of the histories of Earth and the biosphere.” [This is my contribution to the May 2023 GTI Forum Big History and Great Transition]

In 1976, Robert Gilpin distinguished three contrasting political economy perspectives: liberalism, Marxism, and mercantilism. Gilpin introduced these International Relations derived categories as theories and ideologies of political economy, sometimes conceived either as explanatory models or future scenarios. He recognises that the three ideologies ‘define the conflicting perspectives’ that actors have, but he does not go as far as to theorise how the perspectives may be part of the dynamics of the world economy and generative of its history and future. Gilpin’s models, scenarios, and theories are thus mainly cognitive attempts to understand reality from the outside. Since Gilpin’s main works, a large number of critical and constructivist IPE and GPE approaches have arisen, stressing the constitutive role of ideas and performativity of theories. Many of these studies, however, tend to focus on aspects of contemporary matters or specific issues and fall short of analysing broad historical developments and, most markedly, causation. [This blog was originally published at the Progress in Political Economy PPE-website in Sydney and can be directly accessed here.]

The result of the Finnish parliamentary elections held on Sunday 2 April is clear: the right-wing conservative parties won, and the center-left base of Sanna Marin’s government lost. The conservative party got 48 seats and the Finns party 46 out of 200. Although the social democrats slightly increased their share of votes (to 19.9%) and seats (to 43), this was likely because some supporters of the Greens and Left Alliance and perhaps also the Centre Party decided tactically to concentrate votes on social democrats in the hope of making them the biggest party. The three other main parties of the government coalition lost a combined 26 seats. (This blog was originally published by Brave New Europe).

Recently, calls for a negotiated peace agreement in the Ukraine war have increased not only in Europe but also in the US. General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff made such a call in early November 2022.[i] Professor Charles A Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, announced “[i]t’s time to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiation table”.[ii] President Biden said during his visit to France on 1 December that he would meet with the Russian president if he showed a willingness to end the war. Possible and realistic terms of a possible peace deal have not however been elaborated. (This text co-authored with Tapio Kanninen was published in January 2023 issue of Le Monde Diplomatique in French as “Propositions pour une sortie de crise”; in English as “Giving peace a chance”; other editions will follow).