Globalization, a process that seems to defy easy definition, breaks down barriers whether these
barriers separate nation-states, cultures, labor markets, or national economies. Globalization
breaks down these barriers the same way that IPE has seemingly beat down the barriers between
and among various academic disciplines. In so doing, IPE has perhaps carved out for itself an
unexpected role: the academic discipline that studies the results of the creative destruction of
both modern society and the modern disciplinary structure.