The OECD and Phases in the International Political Economy, 1961-2011

Abstract

This article analyzes the evolution of the OECD over half a century, from 1961 to 2011, from two perspectives: phases in the international political economy and the literature on IPE. By so doing, we uncover two paradoxes. Firstly, we find that the organization’s evolution closely mirrored major phases in the post-war international political economy until recently. However, the OECD’s long-term dependence on the West has now become an obstacle to its efforts to adapt to the latest phase, characterized by the rise of non-Western powers. Secondly, we show that, during the OECD’s “golden age”, scholars paid relatively little attention to the organization but, from the 2000s, as the organization faced an unprecedented challenge of its potential economic decline, IPE literature on the organization blossomed.