Critical theory in Global Political Economy: Critique? Knowledge? Emancipation?

This article reviews the number of different ways in which critical theory is applied within International Political Economy (IPE) and argues that, while a great deal of material claims to be ‘critical’, much of it fails to fully scrutinize the traditions of reflexivity and critique that are grounded in the critical tradition. While Cox, the neo-Gramscian ‘turn’ and Frankfurt-inspired accounts have made certain advances for the application of critical thought in IPE, these need to be articulated more explicitly, through a set of principles that allow critical thought to aspire towards a more feasible set of results.