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Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier Exploring Governance in a Turbulent World. By James N. Rosenau. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 467p. $59.50 cloth, $22.95 paper.
Those who write reviews should avoid such trite descriptions of a new book as "major," "important," and "pioneering." In the case of James Rosenau's latest volume, however, they are actually understatements. Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier is a profoundly ambitious, insightful, and essential guide to the contemporary "postinternational" epoch in global politics.
Rosenau's 1990 volume, Turbulence in World Politics, maintained that states find their traditional authority increasingly challenged both from within and by powerful trends that transcend their legal boundaries. In an extraordinary outpouring of papers and publications, he subsequently elaborated upon his new vision of global politics. Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier is a careful synthesis and expansion of that work, which, with Rosenau, of course, is always work in progress.
As did Turbulence, this book testifies, in part, to how far Rosenau has come from his former role as a proponent of strict scientific methods. More important, it is at once empirical and deeply radical. By contrast to postmodern relativists, Rosenau argues that all of us can and should begin to discern the actual shape and dynamics of today's political world. Realists, neorealists, institutionalists, and constructivists of a state-centric bent also seem primitivists by comparison. What one will not find in this volume is a review of the literature in international relations theory. Let us forget most of that, he seems to suggest, and get on with an analysis of what any fool can see is happening.