A Defence of the Relevance of Neorealism in the Post-Bipolar World

This article evaluates the validity of neorealism in explaining contemporary international events. It is argued that three decades since the end of bipolarity and despite the neoliberal challenge, neorealism still provides convincing explanations of world politics. Within this context the basic theoretical precepts of Kenneth Waltz’s neorealism are presented before moving on to outline the main aspects of the neoliberal challenge since the end of the Cold War. Then the response of structural realism is evaluated. Finally, through an analysis of recent normative and empirical discourses, this article reaffirms structural realism’s credibility as a theory of international relations.