Realism under praise, or a requiem? The paradigmatic debate in international relations

This article describes how the paradigmatic debate in the field of internat ional relations, opposing Grotius's tradition of transnational relations to the Hobbes vision of sovereign territorial units in rivalry for power poli tics, is turning to the advantage of the former. It points out that the cur rent globalization process reinforces the transnational paradigm that focus es on individuals as international actors, With a new configuration emergin g in which politics loses the hierarchical position implied by realism. Thr ee kinds of actors (the state, transnational actors, and identity entrepren eurs) are described as promoting a special type of commitment: civic commit ment to the state, utilitarian and pragmatic commitment to transnational ne tworks, and a primary commitment to identity entrepreneurs.