International political economy meets historical sociology : problems and promises

Mainstream International Political Economy (IPE) and Historical Sociology share a number of concerns. This has not, however, resulted in a significant body of historical IPE literature. It is argued that Historical Sociology poses two challenges for IPE, and that these must be accommodated before the field can become historically sensitive. The first concerns the ontology of historical IPE. Whereas mainstream IPE generally recognizes that states are not the only "units" in the international system, the challenge of Historical Sociology revolves around whether there are any relevant differentiations to be made in the concepts of "state" and "international system". The second challenge concerns the question of continuity and change, an issue that has not been the object of extensive conceptual analysis in mainstream IPE. While this article does not offer any specific way of historicizing mainstream IPE, it does suggest a few guidelines for such an enterprise.