ABSTRACT
Although the realism, liberalism, and postinternational politics paradigms have some common elements, in most important respects they rest on very different, even contradictory, premises. The "postinternational politics" is an appropriate label because it highlights the decline of long-standing patterns without at the same time indicating where the changes may be leading. Postinternational politics are perhaps most conspicuously marked by turbulence, by dynamics that foster intense conflicts, unexpected developments, pervasive uncertainties, and swift changes. The three parameters conceived to be primary include the overall structure of global politics, the authority structures that link macro collectivities to citizens, and the skills of citizens. The transformation of the micro parameter is to be found in the shifting capabilities of citizens everywhere. Individuals have undergone what can properly be termed a skill revolution. The macro-micro parameter consists of the recurrent orientations, practices, and patterns of aggregation through which citizens at the micro level are linked to their collectivities at the macro level.
