Political economy, the ‘US School’, and the manifest destiny of everyone else

B.J. Cohen's "British school" of theories of international political economy has much broader, classical and European origins and is much broader than he portrays. The "US school" identified by Cohen stands isolated in this regard. Yet these very European and classical roots may hold the key to bridging the Transatlantic theoretical and methodological divide. The roots of US-based IPE are to be found in the same broad, European political economy heritage. Far too many questions and research problems in IPE can only be addressed properly through the methodological and theoretical pluralism and openness of this heritage, and US scholars are waking up to their own limitations.