Power in the Global Age

This brilliant new book by one of Europe's leading social thinkersthrows light on the global power games being played out betweenglobal business, nation states and movements rooted in civilsociety. Beck offers an illuminating account of the changing natureof power in the global age and assesses the influence of theever-expanding counter-powers. The author puts forward the provocative thesis that in an age ofglobal crises and risks, a politics of "golden handcuffs" - thecreation of a dense network of transnational interdependencies - isexactly what is needed in order to regain national autonomy, notleast in relation to a highly mobile world economy. It isimperative that the maxim of nation-based realpolitik - thatnational interests have necessarily to be pursued by national means- be replaced by the maxim of cosmopolitan realpolitik. The morecosmopolitan our political structures and activities, Becksuggests, the more successful they will be in promoting nationalinterests, and the greater our individual power in this global agewill be.