In the context of a general discussion relating to the field of International Relations as an area of academic activity, and with its changing configuration in the last two decades, the article discusses the contribution of the Gramscian approach to the study of international organizations, from the vantage-point of a critical examination of the book International organization and industrial change. Global governance since 1850, by Craig Murphy. Even though with a pretty much positive global evaluation of the book, the article criticizes the problematic use of the "international civil society" concept. After discussing the tensions and antagonisms covered by the book, the article associates the current changes in the level of the international civil society with factors which have contributed, in the last twenty years, to open the International Relations field to a plurality of less orthodox orientations and research programs.
International organizations; International Relations; International civil society; Neo-Gramscian approach