This timely book offers important new insights into the boundaries between political and financial geographies, focusing on the links between the changing strategies, policies and institutions of the state. It investigates banks and other financial institutions affected by both state policies and a globalizing financial system, and the financial resources available to firms as well as households. In so doing, the book highlights how an empirical focus on the semi-periphery of the financial system may generate new perspectives on the entanglement between geopolitics and finance.

Chapters explore a range of place-specific relations, highlighting the impact of state-led reforms, the importance of models, innovation and adaptation to local conditions, and bank intermediation. Conceptually, the book engages with insights from a variety of disciplines in order to explore the connections between geo-political and geo-economic discourses, public finance and foreign policy, the practices and localization of financial institutions, and the evolution of strategies for globalizing firms.

Political and financial geographers will find this book to be a compelling read, as it sheds new light on the semi-periphery, which is often overlooked in studies addressing the global financial system. Economic policy-makers working on the nexus between politics, finance and development will also benefit from reading this book.

Contributors include: S. Ageeva, G. Battisti, F. Betioli Contel, S. Grandi, J. Jafri, G. Lim, A. Mishura, T.T. Nguyen, M. Percoco, U. Rosati, C. Sellar, E. Stavrova, E. Yilmaz