Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World.

• Author: Winters, Matthew S.
• Position: Book Review

By Robert Keohane

New York, NY: Routledge, 2002, 298 pages

One of the leading political scientists of the past quarter-century, Robert O. Keohane hopes readers will recognize the path of his esteemed career in his latest collection of essays. Although spanning only a decade of writing, the reader is invited to follow Keohane from his earliest considerations of interdependence into institutional theory and then, following a brief detour through international law, into his explorations of "the two key buzzwords of our own day," globalization and governance. Throughout its twelve chapters, of which, only two were specifically composed for the collection, the book succeeds in offering a review of Keohane's impact on the field of international relations. To a lesser degree, it offers, amidst a few digressive chapters, some insight into globalization.

Keohane's role in political science has been to foment research by others by pointing out the relevant issues and establishing definitions and typologies, rather than conducting hard empirical research or policy analysis. His writing is abstract and highly theoretical, which may make his work inaccessible to readers outside of academia and research. Keohane promises he is not just rehashing old concepts in this book, as he distinguishes between interdependence and globalization: "Globalization moves beyond linkages between separate societies to the reorganization of social life on a transnational basis." He attempts to stimulate consideration of the mechanisms through which governance--"how the various institutions and processes of global society could be meshed more effectively, in a way that would be regarded as legitimate by attentive publics controlling access to key resources"--might be enhanced. While Keohane gives some direction, the book is ultimately a launch pad from which others can begin to do additional theoretical and practical work in the arena of global governance.

The oldest piece in the book is a chapter excerpted from a 1990 volume edited by John Dunn, Economic Limits to Modern Politics. Entitled "International Liberalism Reconsidered," it consists of Keohane's thoughts on classical and philosophical liberalism, realism and Marxism. He argues that sophisticated liberalism, a combination of commercial (i.e. free trade-type) liberalism and regulatory (i.e. international organization) liberalism, is the surest philosophical base on which to build institutions of global governance...