A.Mc. A common preoccupation of much contemporary writing about world politics concerns the dynamic interrelation between continuity and change. The end of the Cold War, the intensification of globalization and the 'postmodern turn' have delivered powerful challenges to the orthodoxy of realism. Among the most significant of these challenges is the cosmopolitan approach advocated by David Held, Andrew Linklater and others. In contradistinction to realism, which assumes a strict analytical separation between politics within and amongst states, the cosmopolitan approach proffers a more unified conception of political life. In this discussion Barry Buzan, a prominent advocate of realism, and David Held debate the merits of their respective positions and assess the strengths and limits of both realism and cosmopolitanism as frameworks for understanding contemporary global politics and its potential for transformation. I began by asking Barry to explain the fundamentals of contemporary realism. What are its constituent elements?