Kristen Hopewell

Argues that, in seeking to criticize Trump’s agenda and the danger it represents, there has been a tendency to fall back on a largely fictitious vision of the past – a romanticized image of the pre-Trump liberal international economic order and the US’s role within it. In fact, the US’s commitment to liberal principles has always been partial, selective and self-serving, with US leadership experienced by many as coercive rather than benevolent. 

Analyzes how rising powers are affecting an important area of global governance at the intersection of trade and environment: export credit. State-backed export credit agencies (ECAs) play a major role in financing large infrastructure and energy projects, particularly in developing countries. Many of these projects carry significant environmental implications, yet there has been little scholarly attention to their governance.

Argues that the collapse of the Doha Round negotiations in 2008 signals a crisis in the American-led project of neoliberal globalization. Historically, the U.S. has pressured other countries to open their markets while maintaining its own protectionist policies. Over the course of the Doha negotiations, however, China, India, and Brazil challenged America's hypocrisy

Analyzes the case of export credit, which has long been considered a highly effective international regulatory regime and an important component of global trade governance

The much hyped rise of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has lately been met with equally fervent declarations of their demise. Amid slowing growth in many of these countries, the prevailing view now appears to be that the rise of the BRICS was little more than an illusion. In this article, however, I contest this assessment by arguing that the emerging powers were never solely, nor most importantly, merely an economic phenomenon. Instead, I show that emerging powers—specifically Brazil, India and China—have become an important political force in the global trading system and have had a profound and lasting impact on the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Shows how China’s rise has radically altered the politics of one of the most prominent and controversial issues in the global trading system: agriculture subsidies. Agriculture subsidies depress global prices and undermine the competitiveness and livelihoods of poor farmers, and therefore have been long seen as a symbol of the injustice of the trading system.

Shows that the disruption of export credit is undermining the competitiveness of key U.S. industrial sectors and encouraging the movement of advanced, high-value-added manufacturing overseas.

Shows how state-business relations in Brazil have been transformed in the contemporary era of globalization: the emergence of a highly-competitive export-oriented agribusiness sector in Brazil has prompted the expansion and internationalization of domestic capital, leading to the emergence of an independent, private sector lobby with considerable influence on the Brazilian state.