PhD defence: Tom Wraight

In the past four decades, American policymakers have become increasingly preoccupied with the challenge of the East Asian Developmental State. Practiced first in Japan and later in China, this economic model, associated with the active use of industrial policy, has come to be viewed in Washington as a potentially mortal threat to US technological and economic leadership. This thesis explores how US policymakers and intellectuals sought to conceptualise and counter this perceived threat. Beginning with the industrial policy and competitiveness debates of the late 1970s, continuing through the tense commercial conflicts with Japan in the 1980s and 1990s and concluding with the current confrontation with China, I argue that US attitudes to foreign developmental states can only be understood by recognising the unique and troubled place of 'developmentalism' within American political development.
 
Primary Supervisor:
Professor MSO Edward Ashbee
Department of International Economics, Government and Business
Copenhagen Business School
 
Secondary Supervisor:
Associate Professor Martin Bæk Carstensen
Department of Organization
Copenhagen Business School
 
Assessment Committee:
Associate Professor Joachim Lund (Chair)
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School

Professor Desmond King
Department of Politics and International relations
Nuffield College, University of Oxford
 
Senior Researcher Vibeke Schou Tjalve
Danish Institute for International Studies
 
Thesis:
The thesis will be available from research.cbs.dk
 
Reception:
The CBS PhD School will host a reception, which will take place immediately after the defence in FUHU Faculty Club (3rd floor, above the canteen, Solbjerg Plads)