Reframing International Development: Globalism, Postmodernity, and Difference.

• Author: Adamson, Fiona B.
• Position: Review

Reframing International Development: Globalism, Postmodernity, and Difference

Nelson W. Keith (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997) 313 pp.

Nelson W. Keith's Reframing International Development: Globalism, Postmodernity, and Difference is a provocative book with three very ambitious goals: to theorize the structure of the emerging global system; to provide a comprehensive critique of Enlightenment thought and to outline a new transformative political agenda. Part polemic, part literature review, Reframing International Development is a challenging work which attempts to cut across disciplinary boundaries and suggest a more inclusive and critical approach to global politics. Yet, while the book's goals are to be admired, they are not fully realized. The book's argument is too unwieldy and abstract to serve as a useful guide for either scholars or political activists, and for this reason Reframing International Development ultimately disappoints.

The author's main claim, outlined in Chapters One and Two, is that the international system is undergoing a structural transformation from an old order based on Enlightenment principles, to a new, interdependent postmodern global order. The normative order of the old international system is represented by the Hobbesian/Darwinian approach to international relations, as embodied in Kenneth Waltz's neo-realist paradigm. Keith proposes to transcend this existing approach to international politics by focusing on global normative and cultural change, and by including those voices which have been marginalized under existing power structures.

The book's emphasis on the role of culture in shaping international politics is not, in itself, a novel contribution. In fact, there has been a wave of literature in international relations in recent years which focuses on norms, culture and identity, none of which is cited by Keith.(1) Keith's contribution lies rather in the scope of his theorizing and in his attempt to connect the more radical identity-based claims of feminist and post-colonial theorists with transformations in the global political order. The effectiveness of this contribution, however, is severely limited by the fact that Keith does not examine how these radical identity claims interact with the existing material structural conditions in the international system. Keith states early on that the book "will not discuss the role of the state or the nature of international relations or global...