International Finance presents the second set of problems that have traditionally defined International Political Economy. The IPE of International Finance includes analysis of exchange rate policies, foreign exchange systems, international capital movements, and international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Seemingly technical aspects of international finance often hide profound political implications, a fact that has attracted scholars such as Susan Strange and Benjamin J. Cohen to this field. Political scholars may hesitate to engage in this analysis because of the necessity to master difficult theories and arcane terminology, but there is no riper area for IPE analysis. Some issues of current importance in IPE studies of finance include: political struggles over how to respond to the post-2007 global financial crisis; how the complexity of financial markets affects economic stability; and debates over how states should regulate financial markets.