Why Don’t We Have Coherent Theories of International Relations About Globalization?  Arie M. Kacowicz and Mor Mitrani This article offers a systematic and critical attempt to consider the question of why the discipline of international relations is at something of a loss to deal with the concept of “globalization” at a theoretical level. The article discusses this theoretical deficit by raising the following questions: How should we cope with globalization from an IR perspective? Why don’t we have coherent theories of IR about globalization? What should we do about that? We argue that although there is a theoretical need to theo- rize globalization in the framework of conventional IR theories, there are serious impediments that preclude us from developing coherent IR theo- ries about globalization, mainly due to the inherent incompatibility be- tween the features of conventional IR theories and the concept and realities of globalization. Keywords: globalization; global governance; In- ternational Relations theories. “GLOBALIZATION” HAS BECOME ONE OF THE BUZZWORDS OF THE NEW MIL- lennium in both academic and popular discourses. Although public refer- ences to globalization have become increasingly common over the past two decades, there are long and unresolved debates about its genealogy, trajec- tory, and distinctive features. What has become evident is that our current age of expanding political, economic, and cultural dimensions of globaliza- tion has challenged the strict separation between internal and external, domestic and international, and local and global affairs. 1 Hence, globaliza- tion has called into question the orthodox premises and conceptions of both the theory and practices of international relations (IR), at least in its territo- rial-based mainstream variant. Some even question the very identity of international relations as a field of scholarly inquiry, 2 arguing that global- ization generates new political and social orders that have replaced “inter- national relations” as a description of not only what the world looks like, but also how we should understand the role of politics in the world. In this article, we consider the question of why the discipline of inter- national relations is at something of a loss dealing with the concept of globalization at the theoretical level. Against the current realities of inten- sified interdependences and of globalization, IR theory seems to be in dis- 199 Global Governance 22 (2016), 199–218 03-GG222-Kacowicz_GG 3/10/16 3:40 PM Page 199