Politics Is about Relationship: A Blueprint for the Citizens' Century. By Harold H. Saunders London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 256 pp., $35.00 (ISBN: 1-4039-7145-5). Politics Is about Relationship , by Harold H. Saunders, is an important book that draws from and contributes to a wide range of literatures relating to politics. It does not fit neatly into the conventional domains of international relations theory or policy. Rather, it bears on many such domains, including the conduct of foreign relations, civil–government relations, foreign policy analysis (FPA), political theory, and conflict resolution. In the book, Saunders presents a relational paradigm that better represents contemporary global realities than the “realist” paradigm of international affairs. His new paradigm is based on the following premise: Politics, as presented in this book, is about relationships among significant clusters of citizens to solve problems in a cumulative, multilevel, and open-ended process of continuous interaction over time in whole bodies politic across permeable borders, either within or between communities or countries (p. 47). In the first part of Politics Is about Relationship , Saunders explicates each of the critical terms of the paradigm. Thus, “relationship” refers to a complex of five components: identity, interests, power, perceptions, and patterns of interaction. Each of these terms is given a broad set of meanings. For example, “power” depends not only on the ability of one party to coerce another to yield to its will but also on the nature of their relationship and how that can be changed as people interact in various ways. Interests, too, are broadly understood to include those that arise from interdependence and therefore are the basis for cooperation. In …