Pt. 1. Issues beyond the disciplines. Is there room for the real world in the postmodernist universe? / David N. Gibbs -- Rational choice analysis and area studies : enemies or partners? / Margaret A. McKean -- Fragmented visions : excavating the future of area studies in a post-American world / Ravi Arvind Palat -- Pt. 2. International studies and the disciplines. Attack on the straw men : postmodern critiques of anthropology and vice versa / Richard J. Perry (anthropology) -- Disputing the nature of the international : geographies of sameness and difference / John Agnew (geography) -- What's wrong with contemporary economics? / Paul Streeten (economics) -- Confessions of a pre-postmodernist ; or can an old-timer change course? / James N. Rosenau (political science) -- Agency in the new world history / Ian J. Barrow (history) -- American way of language learning / Jon M. Strolle (languages).