This volume presents a reconsideration of the concepts of state and political power within the evolving multilateral network of cooperation and conflict. By means of an innovating research strategy, it explains state resilience within global governance while deepening the obsolescence of the traditional sovereign state concepts, including by emerging powers. Rather than considering the EU as an isolated case study, the book considers the EU as both a reference and a proactive player, which fosters a new research agenda both for comparative studies and political theory. Lastly, in view of the currently emergent, unprecedented and asymmetrical, ?multi-polar? world, it considers the need for a new research agenda on multilateralism.