Written in the context of contemporary theoretical debate in international political economy, this book overturns a number of myths about the political economy of trade in one of the oldest areas of industry. In this way the author systematically links the changing characteristics of the trade regime to structural change and adjustment in global industry. He argues that state policy processes, international regimes and the industrial adjustment strategies of firms must be conceptualised as integrated processes of governance cutting across levels of analysis in the global political economy.

GEOFFREY R.D. UNDERHILL is Professor of International Governance at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He obtained his BA (Honours) First Class from Queen's University at Kingston, and did his doctoral degree at St Antony's College, Oxford. He has published widely on the political economy of international trade and on the globalisation of financial services market. His publications include: Political Economy and the Changing Global Order edited with Richard Stubbs, (1994); The Single Market and Global Economic Integration, a special issue of Journal of European Public Policy volume 2, no. 3, 1995, and Regionalism and Global Economic Integration: Europe, Asia and the Americas (1998), both edited with William D. Coleman and The New World Order in International Finance (1997).