Once considered arcane issues, intellectual property protection and antitrust have emerged in the last decade as central items on national and international agendas. Susan K. Sell presents the first comprehensive book-length political science treatment of these issues. She analyzes the North-South politics and diplomacy of intellectual property protection and antitrust in two eras: from the early 1970s to 1985, and from 1985 to the present.

For the first era, the book analyzes multilateral negotiations over codes of conduct for technology transfer, restrictive business practices, and intellectual property protection. For the second era, the book focuses on the spread of antitrust policies in developing countries, the use of coercive bilateral diplomacy by the United States in its quest to strengthen global intellectual property protection, and the Uruguay Round of trade talks.

Power and Ideas provides historical perspective, a broad introduction to the issues, and an in-depth, substantive analysis of the global politics and diplomacy of intellectual property protection and antitrust. Sell highlights the profound changes underway in both developing and industrialized countries. Drawing upon international relations scholarship on the role of ideas, she emphasizes the importance of understanding how and why policy makers redefined their interests in these areas.

By incorporating intersubjective dimensions of politics, the institutionalization of economic ideas, and power asymmetries, Sell explains significant trends that will shape international commerce for years to come.