Yosef Lapid is associate professor of government at New Mexico State University. He is author of Beyond the Third Debate: New Frontiers in International Relations. Friedrich Kratochwil is Chair in International Relations, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich. His publications include Rules, Norms, and Decisions: On the Conditions of Practical and Legal Reasoning in International Relations and Domestic Society.

Unanticipated epochal events associated with the demise of the Cold War have prompted the recognition that the post-Cold War order is transforming itself culturally even faster than it is changing geopolitically or economically. Within this context, this volume explores the scope and promise of the "return" of culture and identity to the IR theoretical agenda.

The authors address a series of questions: What explains the sustained lack of interest in culture and identity in IR theory? What is the case for rethinking the contemporary theoretical reach of these concepts? What are the most productive ways of defining them—elusive as they are—and integrating them in research endeavors? And finally, what are the risks, if any, associated with implementing the intellectual swing of pendulum documented and advocated in this book?

Though clearly not endorsing any form of cultural determinism, the contributors concur that the incorporation of a carefully sensitized culture/identity optic can serve as an important corrective to IR scholarship in an era of turbulent global transformation. Significant disagreements notwithstanding, they share the conviction that it is difficult to exaggerate the political and intellectual stakes involved in questions of culture and identity.