Abstract
International Relations have traditionally focused on the State and its ability to survive. Major theories of international relations try to adequately explain and therefore predict security developments and constructing international relations in the world in which we live. The predominant theory during the second half of the 20th century has been Realism, which assumes that nation-states are unitary, geographically-based actors in an anarchic international system with no ultimate authority capable of regulating interactions between states. This is due to the non-existence of a world government. Secondly, it assumes that sovereign states, rather than international institutions, are the primary actors in international affairs. As such, a state acts as a rational autonomous actor in pursuit of its own self-interest with a primary goal to maintain and ensure its own security, and thus its sovereignty and survival. Realism holds that in pursuit of their interests, states will attempt to amass resources, and that relations between states are determined by their relative levels of power. That level of power is in turn determined by the state's military and economic capabilities.
Nevertheless, if Realism has shown its ability to be a parsimonious and very essentialist theory useful in accounting for historical actions, one of its major weaknesses remains that it is limited in both explaining systemic changes, such as the end of the Cold War, and predicting future events.
