In order to reconcile his belief that states remain the fundamental framework for contentious politics, with what looks like an emerging full-blown global civil society or integrated transnational polity, Tarrow (government and sociology, Cornell U.) identifies the new actors on the global political scene, explores their relationships, and charts their impact on domestic and international politics. He argues that the most effective transnational activists are rooted cosmopolitans closely linked to domestic networks and opportunities. Annotation #169;2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

The modern social movement developed alongside and in conjunction with the nation-state. What, then, will become of social movements in the face of a growing realm of international regimes and supranational governance structures? Will social movements make the leap to transnational politics, or will they instead prove to be "prisoners of the state"? In this carefully argued work, chock full of empirical examples from across the globe, Tarrow (Cornell) parses the much-hyped development of a transnational realm of social movements and examines the range of factors advancing and limiting their global reach. The author shows the ways that the already high transaction costs of engaging in collective action are heightened exponentially in transnational politics; he chronicles the most developed efforts to overcome those barriers and imparts analytic rigor to the understanding of the transnational movement phenomenon. The picture that emerges is of a series of more or less robust mechanisms and processes by which social movements are translating their traditionally domestic repertoires, organizations, and networks into transnational politics. This is a superlative work and should be required reading for all students of social movements, globalization, and world politics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General collections through research/faculty collections. General Readers; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty. Reviewed by D. R. Imig. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.