According to a proposal by Robert Gilpin, international political economy, in the early stages of development referred to as ‘political economy of international relations’, is a recognised subdiscipline of international relations. It emerged in the early 1970s with the growing need for an integrated approach to political and economic phenomena and processes. It enjoys the status of a subdiscipline because of its specified scope of research, its methodological and theoretical identity as well as the high degree of institutionalisation in the form of associations and research groups, sections and committees, journals dedicated to this issue alone and highly developed didactics under programmes of education in international relations.