ABSTRACT
Does the variety of practices of of processes of state formation and of multilateral cooperation correspond to different ideas, diverse beliefs, opposed principles, alternative theoretical conceptualisation? Three poles of theoretical innovation are emerging: the US, China and Europe. The first one is the US internal process of criticism of the classical realists and neorealism of Kenneth Waltz. This process started in the sixties and seventies and had its theoretical leader in Joseph Nye and, notably, Robert Keohane. Post-realist research focused on the centrality of the system, on the state-centric approach and on the changing concept of sovereignty. The similar debate developed since the nineties in China added multiple and various interpretations of the focus on the link between tradition and innovation: see Qin Yaqing and Yan Xuetong, for example. However, the notion of hegemony looks to be a conceptual divide. Finally, the last decades have seen the true explosion of European thought innovation, notably in Germany (Habermas), France (Derrida and Badie) and Italy (Gramsci and Bobbio).
