This essay examines how new methodological approaches and historical sub-disciplines - influenced by numerous global, cultural and transnational «turns» - have affected the study of the relations among states and their leaders. The author claims that approaches such as transnational history or the «global turn» are fundamental for the analysis of phenomena like migrations or cultural transfers that cannot be studied within a traditional, state-centred frame. At the same time, the essay underlines that the interactions among states and the agency of their leaders still represent key explanatory factors of historical change in an interdependent world.