The unfinished global revolution: intellectuals and the new politics of international relations

More than a decade after the revolutions of 1989, we can see these as a hig h point of a new, worldwide and increasingly global wave of democratic revo lution and counterrevolution. Violent struggles between the political force s unleashed have produced genocidal wars and stimulated global state format ion. These developments present concerned citizens and students of internat ional relations and politics with new challenges. This article criticizes t wo trends in the responses of political intellectuals in the West: the 'new anarchism' of some critical thinkers in the academic discipline of interna tional relations. and 'yesterday's radicalism' which has led some left-wing critics to revive the defence of sovereignty for repressive and genocidal non-Western states. The lecture concludes by outlining an alternative,new p olitics' of international relations.