Neorealism in International Relations: From Explaining to Influencing World Politics

The article analyses the most important claims of the neorealist school in International Relations and the tension between the normative stance of neorealist theory and its predictive ability. Indeed, the simple fact that there are states that, in the name of absolute sovereignty, ignore the logic of the balance of power or refuse to act strategically undermines the predictability of any analysis. But, as the article concludes, sovereignty is an empty concept as long as it is disconnected from the real balance of forces between the great powers. The actors which do not take into account this relationship, the game of power balance and the constraining force of the international system structure, are very likely to be eliminated by the engineering of this structure.