Robert Gilpin
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Robert Gilpin (; July 2, 1930 – June 20, 2018) was an American political scientist. He was Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
where he held the Eisenhower professorship. Gilpin was an influential figure in the fields of
international relations theory International relations theory is the study of international relations (IR) from a theoretical perspective. It seeks to explain behaviors and outcomes in international politics. The three most prominent School of thought, schools of thought are ...
and international political economy. A "soft" realist, Gilpin argued that international economic affairs reflected state power, and that states' security interests shaped international economic cooperation. He was a proponent of what would become known as hegemonic stability theory, the notion that the international system is most likely to be stable in the presence of a hegemon.


Education

Gilpin received his B.A. from the
University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...
in 1952 and his M.S. from
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
in 1954. Following three years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, Gilpin completed his Ph.D. at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, earning his doctorate in 1960.


Career

Gilpin joined the Princeton faculty in 1962 and became full professor in 1970. 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 to 1968 and again from 1976 to 1977, and a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
. He was a member of the American Political Science Association for which he served as vice president from 1984 to 1985, and he was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Early in his career, Gilpin focused on conflict and national security, in particular nuclear weapons policy. Over time, his focus shifted to international political economy. Gilpin described his view of international relations and international political economy from a " realist" standpoint. He characterized himself as a "soft" realist. He explained in his book ''Global Political Economy'' that he considered himself a "state-centric realist" in the tradition of prominent " classical realists" such as E. H. Carr and
Hans Morgenthau Hans Joachim Morgenthau (February 17, 1904 – July 19, 1980) was a German-American jurist and political scientist who was one of the major 20th-century figures in the study of international relations. Morgenthau's works belong to the tradition ...
. He has described Morgenthau, Carr and Hedley Bull as influences on his thinking, as well as Susan Strange, Raymond Vernon and Richard Cooper. An important figure in the field of International Political Economy (IPE), Gilpin's scholarship pushed back on claims made by liberal institutionalists such as Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye on the declining importance of state power in international economic affairs amid complex interdependence. Gilpin argued that states were still the key actors in the realm of economic relations and that security interests remained a key determinant of state behavior in economic affairs. Non-state actors were still fundamentally dependent on what states did. Gilpin was a strong influence on Stephen D. Krasner. Within IPE, Gilpin proposed an influential framework for organizing schools of political thought on the relationship between politics and economics into three: Mercantilism, Liberalism, and Marxism. In his 1975 book ''US Power and the Multinational Corporation'', Gilpin warned that
multinational corporation A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...
s could facilitate a rapid spread of advanced technologies away from the leading states to rising states, thus facilitating more rapid power transitions. Gilpin has described ''War and Change In World Politics'' (1981) as the work of his that he is most pleased with. 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 The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
. Gilpin was openly critical of the politics surrounding the 2003 invasion of Iraq in his essay "War is Too Important to Be Left to Ideological Amateurs."Gilpin, Robert (2005).''International Relations'' vol. 19, no. 1 5–18.


Bibliography

*
American Scientists and Nuclear Weapons Policy
' (1962) * ''France in the Age of the Scientific State'' (1968) * ''US Power and the Multinational Corporation'' (1975) * ''War and Change In World Politics'' (1981) * ''The Political Economy of International Relations'' (1987) * ''The Challenge of Global Capitalism'' (2000) * ''Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order'' (2001) These books have been translated into a number of languages. The Political Economy of International Relations won the 1987 Award for the Best New Professional and Scholarly Book in Business, Management, and Economics, as well as the 1988 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award for the best book in political science


See also

* Neorealism * Neoclassical realism


References


Further reading

* * Milner, Helen V. (2018-08-15). "The Enduring Legacy of Robert Gilpin". ''Foreign Affairs''.
ISSN An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit to uniquely identify a periodical publication (periodical), such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs a ...
 0015-7120. **


External links


Princeton University profile

Gilpinian Realism and International Relations

Conversations in International Relations: Interview with Robert Gilpin

Articles at JSTOR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilpin, Robert 1930 births 2018 deaths Cornell University alumni American economists American international relations scholars Political realists American political scientists Princeton University faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Vermont alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers National Bureau of Asian Research People from Burlington, Vermont American foreign policy writers