The end of the Cold War and the dissatisfaction with prevailing approaches to international relations have opened new spaces for theorizing about world politics. This book attempts to revive a subject that rose to a certain prominence during the early 1970s, but then withered away, while state-centered approaches to international relations carried the day. Pronouncing the topic of transnational relations dead, we argue, has been premature. This volume takes a fresh look at the impact of non-state actors on world politics and on the foreign policies of states. In particular, we look at the interaction between states and transnational relations in various issue-areas and conclude that domestic structures and international institutions mediate the influence of networks among non-state actors in international society.

The idea of bringing transnational relations back into the debate about international politics originated in conversations between Matthew Evangelista and myself when the “earthquake” of the end of the Cold War hit us in 1989–90. Matt and I then organized a first panel on the subject at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in March 1991. Matt, Daniel Thomas, and I presented papers, while Robert Keohane served as a commentator. The response by the audience was sufficiently enthusiastic so that I decided to pursue the issue further. Yale's International Studies Program and Cornell's Peace Studies Program, particularly the two directors, Bruce Russett and Judith Reppy, became interested in the topic and offered to host two project workshops. The first took place in New Haven from May 8 to 9, 1992, the second workshop followed in Ithaca from November 13 to 15, 1992.