Does a poststructuralist concern with the power relations at the root of inequality in the international arena negate hope for a progressive vision for our activism today and the results it might produce in the future? If not, how can one navigate (in Stephen White’s [2000] words) a ‘politics of affirmation’ in a postmodern era? Having been defeated by this question either directly or indirectly for my entire academic career, I picked up Anthony Burke’s article on “Security Cosmopolitanism” (first as a reviewer and then as a responder) with a sort of magnetic attraction. Would it be an answer to those questions that finally made sense to me?