John Odell

Bio

In 2000 Mr. Odell published a new book entitled Negotiating the World Economy. It gives the inside stories of ten major economic negotiations since 1944 that have involved the United States. It explains the strategies used by governments as well as why the same strategy gains more in some situations and less in others. The book develops a mid-range theory based on bounded rationality, setting it apart from the most common form of rational choice as well as from views that reject rationality. It reveals a rich set of future research paths and closes with guidelines from improving negotiation performance today. The main ideas are relevant for any country and for all who may be affected by international economic bargaining. You can read its introductory chapter, as well as some of my other works, on this web site.

John Odell has conducted field research in the US, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Mexico, Brazil, the European Community, and Switzerland, at the World Trade Organization as well as the International Monetary Fund. At USC he teaches courses in political economy, US foreign economic policy, negotiation, and research methods, and direct the International Relations honors program.

Dr. Odell has a PhD and a MA degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He has been director at the USC Center for International Studies, visiting fellow at the Research Institute of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in Tokyo and Director of Latin American Policy Development.  He is currently Professor, at the School of International Relations University of Southern California.

Academic Background

• Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1976
• M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1968
• B.A. with High Honors, University of Texas-Austin, 1967 (all in Political Science)

Areas of Expertise

• International policy and Trade

Present Position (s)

• Professor, School of International Relations
  University of Southern California

Previous Position (s)

• Editor, International Organization, 1992-1996
• Director, USC Center for International Studies, 1989-1992.
• Visiting Fellow, Research Institute of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Tokyo, 1989
• Visiting Fellow, Institute for International Economics, Washington, 1985-1987
• Director, Latin American Policy Development, Office of U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President, 1984-1985
• Associate Professor, USC, 1982-1990; Professor, 1990-present
• Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University, 1976-1982

Other Activities and Memberships

• Member of Editorial Boards of International Organization 1984 to present; Journal of Public Policy, 1990 to present; Journal of Politics, 1982-1988; boards of book series published by University of Michigan Press and Westview Press
• Member of Selection Board, Pew Faculty Fellowship, J.F. Kennedy School of Government, 1989 to 1994; Member of Steering Committee, Technology and Trade Policies, U.S. National Academy of Engineering, 1991.
• Member of Council on Foreign Relations, Pacific Council on International Policy, American Political Science Association, International Studies Association

Honors and Grants

• Ford Foundation, grant to study international trade, international organizations, and negotiations, 1989-1990, with T. W. Willett
• Social Science Research Council, Advanced Research Fellowship in Foreign Policy Studies, for study of the domestic political process, foreign policy, and international economic bargaining, 1987-1989
• Ford Foundation, grant to hold two conferences on the blending of economic and political analysis of international economic relations, 1986-1988, with T.D. Willett.
• Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, 1984-1985.
• Ford Foundation, Program in International Economic Order, grant to study trade conflicts between the U.S. and newly industrialized countries, 1979-1982
• Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in International Relations, 1979-1981 (declined).
• Institute for the Study of World Politics, Research grant, 1979-1980 (declined).
• Harvard University, Center for International Affairs, Fellowship, 1975-1976.
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Research grant, 1975.
• The Brookings Institution, Guest Scholar, 1975.

Publications

• “La OMC, otra vez en punto muerto [The WTO, deadlocked again]," Foreign Affairs en Español 3 (Julio-Septiembre 2003):111-118.
• "Bounded Rationality and the World Political Economy: The Nature of Decision Making," September 2001. (Word format) From Governing the World's Money, ed. David M. Andrews, C. Randall Henning, and Louis W. Pauly (Cornell University Press, 2002).
• “The Seattle Impasse And Its Implications For The World Trade Organization,” January, 2001. (Word format) In The Political Economy of International Trade Law, ed. Daniel Kennedy and James Southwick (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
• "A few tricks of the Negotiating Trade, but can they produce a rabbit by November?," World Trade Agenda, 2 July 2001. (Word format)
• Review of "Open Economy Politics: The Political Economy of the World Coffee Trade" by Robert Bates, American Political Science Review 95: 250-01, March 2001.
• “Case Study Methods in International Political Economy,” in International Studies Perspectives (2001) 2, 161-176. (Word format)
• Negotiating the World Economy (Cornell University Press, 2000).
• “Market Conditions and International Economic Negotiation: Japan and the United States in 1971,” in International Economic Negotiations: Models versus Reality, ed. Victor Kremenyuk and Gunnar Sjöstedt (Edward Elgar, 2000).
• “The United States, the ITO, and the WTO: Exit Options, Agent Slack, and Presidential Leadership,” in The WTO as an International Organization, ed. Anne O. Krueger (University of Chicago Press, 1998), with Barry Eichengreen. (Acrobat PDF format)
• “International Economic Negotiation, Strategy Choice and Policy Beliefs,” Leviathan (in Japanese), Fall 1997.
• "International Threats and Internal Politics: Brazil, the European Community, and the United States, 1985-1987," in Double Edged Diplomacy: International Bargaining and Domestic Politics, ed. Peter Evans, Harold K. Jacobson, and Robert D.Putnam (University of California Press, 1993). (Acrobat PDF format)
• "Comment" in A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System, ed. Michael Bordo and Barry Eichengreen (University of Chicago Press, 1993).
• Brazilian Informatics and the United States: Defending Infant Industry versus Opening Foreign Markets (Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, 1992), with Anne Dibble.
• European Community Enlargement and the United States (Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, 1992), with Margit Matzinger-Tchakerian.
• Korean Joggers (Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, 1992), with David Lang.
• International Trade Policies: Gains from Exchange between Economics and Political Science, ed. with Thomas D. Willett (University of Michigan Press, 1990). Chapter 1, Gains from Exchange: An Introduction. Chapter 11, Future Directions in the Political Economy of Trade Policies.
• "Understanding International Trade Policies: An Emerging Synthesis," World Politics 43 (October 1990): 139-167. Rpt. in Trade and Investment Policy, ed. Thomas Brewer (Edward Elgar, 1998). (Acrobat PDF format)
• "United States Trade Policy, Free Trade and Protectionism: Policy Stability and Corporate Risk," in Trade Policy and Corporate Business Decisions, eds. Tamir Agmon and Christine Hekman (Oxford Unviersity Press, 1990), with Thomas D. Willett. (Acrobat PDF format)
• "Developing Country Coalition-Building and International Trade Negotiations," in Trade Policy and the Developing World, ed. John Whalley (University of Michigan Press, 1989), with Miles Kahler.
• International Monetary Cooperation, Domestic Politics, and Policy Ideas, double special issue of the Journal of Public Policy, edited with T.D. Willett, 8 (July - December 1988). (Acrobat PDF format)
• "From London to Bretton Woods: Sources of Change in Bargaining Strategies and Outcomes," Journal of Public Policy, (July-December 1988): 287-316. Published in Japanese in Leviathan (1992). Rpt. in The Reconstruction of the International Economy, 1945-1960, ed. Barry Eichengreen (Edward Elgar, 1996). (Acrobat PDF format)
• Anti-Protection: Changing Forces in U.S. Trade Politics (Institute for International Economics, 1987), with I.M. Destler. Published in Japanese, 1990.
• "Growing Trade and Growing Conflict Between Latin America and the United States," in The United States and Latin America in the 1980s, ed. Kevin Middlebrook and Carlos Rico (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986).
• "The Outcomes of International Trade Conflicts: The U.S. and South Korea, 1960-1981," International Studies Quarterly 29 (September 1985): 263-286. (Acrobat PDF format)
• "Growing Trade and Growing Conflict Between the Republic of Korea and the United States," in From Patron to Partner: The Development of U.S.-Korean Business and Trade Relations, ed. Karl Moskowitz (Lexington Books, 1984).
• U.S. International Monetary Policy: Markets, Power, and Ideas as Sources of Change (Princeton University Press, 1982).
• "Latin American Industrial Exports and Trade Negotiations with the United States," in Economic Issues and Political Conflict: U.S.-Latin American Relations, ed. Jorge I. Dominguez (Butterworths, 1982).
• "Bretton Woods and International Political Disintegration: Implications for Monetary Diplomacy," in The Political Economy of Domestic and International Monetary Relations, ed. Raymond Lombra and William Witte (Iowa State University Press, 1982).
• "Latin American Trade Negotiations with the United States," International Organization 34 (Spring 1980): 207-228. Published in Spanish by Cuadernos Semestrales (Mexico), 1980. (Acrobat PDF format)
• "The Politics of Debt Relief: Official Creditors and Brazil, Ghana, and Chile," in Debt and the Less Developed Countries, ed. Jonathan Aronson (Westview Press, 1979).
• "The U.S. and the Emergence of Flexible Exchange Rates: An Analysis of Foreign Policy Change," in International Organization 33 (Winter 1979): 57-82. Earlier version published in German by Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 1977.
• "The Hostility of U.S. External Behavior: An Exploration," in Sage International Yearbook of Foreign Policy Studies 3 (1975).
• "Correlates of U.S. Military Assistance and Military Intervention," in Testing Theories of Economic Imperialism, ed. Steven Rosen and James Kurth (DC Heath Lexington Books, 1974).

Recent Unpublished papers and Reports

• "Making and Breaking Impasses in International Regimes: The WTO, Seattle and Doha," presented at the Conference on Gaining Leverage in International Negotiations Yonsei University Seoul, 14-15 June 2002.
• "Problems in Negotiating Consensus in the World Trade Organization," July 2001. (Word format)
• "Creating Data on International Negotiation Strategies, Alternatives, and Outcomes," 20 April 2001. (Word format)
• “The Negotiation Process and International Economic Organizations,” presented to the American Political Science Association, September 1999. (Word format)
• “Market Conditions and Government Economic Negotiations,” presented to the American Political Science Association, September 1998, and the International Political Science Association, Seoul, August 1997. (Word format)
• “A Working Paper on Military-Political Conditions and International Economic Negotiations,” presented to the University of Chicago, May 1997. (Word format)
• “Gaining More from International Negotiations,” July 1995, for the Second National Meeting on Strategic Studies in Brazil, the University of São Paulo, August 1995.
• "United States-Mexico Toxic Waste Negotiations: A Simulation,” with Thomas Jacobsen, 1992.

Current Research Projects

"Developing Countries and the Process of Negotiation in Trade."  A group of ten authors, including Antonio Ortiz Mena of NetAmericas, will hold a conference in Geneva in November 2003.

He is leading a team of ten scholars studying the process of negotiation that faces developing countries in the WTO and bilaterally. They are investigating the diverse strategies that developing countries have used, internationally and domestically, to increase their gains from negotiating. The project includes but is not limited to Western Hemisphere countries, and it will produce a book and a shorter report for negotiators and international officials.

Areas of Interest

Broadly, the politics of the world economy, or why governments and international organizations do what they do in the economic spheres of international relations. 

Specifically, international economic negotiations, the process and tactics as much as the issues themselves, on monetary as well as trade issues.  US foreign economic policy.  The WTO.  The IMF. 

Recommended Links

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