Milestones of our Graduates - Presented at the ISA Convention 2011

Posted March 22, 2011

 

Asim Ali, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science, delivered a paper entitled Sovereign Wealth Funds: International Political Economy of the Strategic State at the 2011-International Studies Association Convention on a panel on "Governing Financial Markets." The paper presented a typology of different Sovereign Wealth Funds --- developmentalist (Asian based); bureaucratic-authoritarian (Middle East based) ; free market (North American based), and social democratic (Norwegian based) --- and contended that these funds, in spite of being at the intersection of 'high finance and high politics', are primarily driven by domestic political considerations. Through a case study of the Government Linked Corporations (GLCs) and investment portfolios of two Asian SWFs - South Korea and Malaysia --the paper argued that the rise of SWFs represents a “strategic state” whose transformative capacity within global finance has important implications for “north-south” relations in the realm of economic development, international relations, and security. Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are funds controlled by sovereign governments that hold and manage foreign assets derived from current account surpluses or foreign currency reserves.