Theoretically Challenged: Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Change in Regulations of Foreign Investment.

The recent changes in investment regulations presents a conceptual and analytical challenge to current theorizing in international political economy (IPE). Freedom of investment is one of the key tenets of neoliberal economic theory. In a system governed by the logic of comparative advantage and free trade, the existence of international consensus on the integration of financial markets is not surprising. However, the last two decades have been characterized by a rapid increase in a regulatory oversight. A number of countries have reexamined their policies towards the inflow of foreign capital. This paper seeks to account for the growth in investment regulations among major financial powers by bridging the theoretical divide between rationalist and constructivist approaches to IPE. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]