ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the question, does globalization constitute an ascendant paradigm in international studies? Put in perspective, this question goes beyond our field’s three ‘great debates’ over ontology, methodology, and epistemology. Now another debate, which focuses on globalization as a paradigmatic challenge, is heating up, kindling theoretical controversies, and fusing the issues vetted in earlier rounds. The first debate was waged between ‘realists’ and ‘idealists’; the second, ‘traditionalists’ and ‘scientists’; the third, ‘positivists’ versus ‘postpositivists’, or ‘mainstreamers’ versus ‘dissidents’ (in the terms of Lapid 1989; Wendt 1999: 39; Puchala 2000: 136).
