After less than forty years as part of the academic and political science vocabulary, and less than twenty years after the “End of History” and the victory of liberalism, the attempts to understand the increasingly interconnected sociopolitical and economic globalized realities in which we live have generated thousands of pages of both theoretical and empirical research. In doing so, the numerous questions raised by globalization have demonstrated, like many other areas of socioeconomic study, that: (1) there has been an ongoing and profound set of changes to the ways in which states, economies and societies interact; (2) both the theoretical and practical importance of the state and state-based sovereignty are under question; and (3) there is both great need, and great opportunity, for applied and theoretical research exploring the effects, evaluation, chronology, and causes of globalization. As a result, and particularly in the nearly seven years since 9/11, much ink has been spilled exploring the value of globalization to political science, and in turn the value of fields of political science, such as international relations, international political economy and comparative politics, in helping to explain our existing geopolitical reality. While many have focused on globalization as a causal variable, the catastrophic events of 9/11 and afterwards have also led others to focus on globalization as a dependent variable—something that has been affected by global politics, and may, in fact, simply be a relatively brief derivation from the violence and imperialism that has characterized much of modern political history. Such perspectives are further reinforced by the methodological uncertainties of globalization; it is seen by some, as the authors of this text note, as “bad empirics and bad theory” (3) and, without entering into that particular debate, there can be no doubt that globalization raises very real questions in ideological or normative terms, as well as those concerned with more explanatory perspectives.

Given these ambiguities and, in particular, the capacity for globalization to both bridge and challenge theoretical perspectives from a number of disciplines, a new text exploring and reflecting upon the primary theoretical perspectives on globalization is a welcome addition to this growing field of research. Composed of commissioned essays from leading scholars in a number of the social sciences, this book seeks to locate the numerous controversies of the globalization debate within a much broader context than either theoretical or case study-based work. Globalization presents challenges across disciplines, epistemologies, and ontologies and, by beginning from that very premise, the editors and contributors provide a key reflection on not only the explanatory characteristics of globalization (part one-) but also the potential for globalization and how it might be remade and reframed in the light of increased unilateralism by the US and increasing calls for democratic global governance and social justice. As a result, this is a comprehensive book that should prove invaluable not only to students of globalization, but also to those seeking to better understand international relations theory, foreign policy, and both conflict and human security within a global context. Specifically, this book will serve as an excellent reference or text for globalization scholars and graduate students, but it may prove too sophisticated for undergraduate use.

Beginning from the basic premise that globalization needs to be understood and contextualized within both normative and explanatory theory, the division of this text into two corresponding sections could serve to accentuate the differences and divisions within the multiple theoretical perspectives at play. However, the effect is in fact the opposite. Beginning from McGrew's point of divergence from more conventional theoretical examinations of the role of violence in globalization (and not just late twentieth-century globalization) and moving on to explorations of (1) American hegemony (Ikenberry), contemporary imperialism (Callincos), the territorial relationships of the global to the local and national (Sassen), economic convergence (Mosley) and both constructivist (Risse) and phenomenological (Tomlinson) responses to globalization discourses rooted in “cultural imperialism, homogenization and difference” (8), the editors present a compelling overview of the explanatory theories intersecting with globalization. However, in doing so, the editors and contributing authors also present an emerging normative, yet highly relevant, argument, one that calls into question not simply the question of hegemony and power (a recurring theme), but more specifically the “American question” and the impact of 9/11 upon the progression and direction of globalization.

This American question thus provides an underlying a framework for the second half of the book, a series of normative theoretical pieces concerned with how globalization might look or should be remade. As such, this section, too, covers significant ground, ranging from questions of remaking international society (Brown), liberal peace (Doyle) and redistributive justice (Pogge) to two concluding chapters exploring both the feasibility and underlying cosmopolitan principles embedded in such a remaking of the international. In the penultimate chapter Kuper present eight institutional reforms leading to normatively improved global governance, while a more radical Held advocates for global social democracy. As a result, what emerges from the text as a whole is not just an academic overview of the theoretical “state of the field” but rather a book that reads like a well-crafted series of arguments for change, both theoretical and practical, in order to improve the condition of humanity within the global context.

Globalization Theory: Approaches and Controversies is a highly informative, theoretically grounded and well-researched treatment of a timely, yet extremely complex collection of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. As a topic of inquiry, globalization not only permits but requires a broad range of epistemological and ontological avenues for inquiry, and this text does an admirable job of presenting those different avenues. Perhaps more importantly, these perspectives are framed in such a way so as to serve a higher purpose: to present a series of critically informed insights that can provide guidance on how to make globalization safe for humanity, rather than humanity safe for globalization.