Realism under Praise, or a Requiem? The Paradigmatic Debate in International Relations

Abstract

This article describes how the paradigmatic debate in the field of international relations, opposing Grotius’s tradition of transnational relations to the Hobbes vision of sovereign territorial units in rivalry for power politics, is turning to the advantage of the former. It points out that the current globalization process reinforces the transnational paradigm that focuses on individuals as international actors, with a new configuration emerging in which politics loses the hierarchical position implied by realism. Three kinds of actors (the state, transnational actors, and identity entrepreneurs) are described as promoting a special type of commitment: civic commitment to the state, utilitarian and pragmatic commitment to transnational networks, and a primary commitment to identity entrepreneurs.