Neorealist and Neoliberal Alternatives to U.S. - Russian Security Essay

Neorealist and Neoliberal Alternatives to U.S. - Russian Security Cooperation - Essay Example While neorealism essentially believes that international political situation is inherently anarchic and the only chance of survival a state has is through striking an acceptable balance of power, neoliberalism postulates the world is a community of nations where collective security should be the goal which can be attained through rational harmonization of sovereign interests of member nations (Calhoun 2002). So, it would be in the nature of things to briefly discuss these two apparently contradictory theories, more so the conflict between them, before one delves deeper into the intricacies of mutual relations between two United States and Russia. Anarchy has very often been the starting point of many theories of international relations and the first important point of difference between these two theories is how they perceive anarchy and how they draw their conclusions from such perceptions. The problem possibly lies in having implicit assumptions regarding strategic considerations of a state that are not clearly codified but clouds clarity in drawing rational inferences. The second point of difference is the issue of absolute and relative gains of states. The issue of absolute or relative gains is inextricably intertwined with strategic environment of a particular state and the extent of absolute or relative gains is measured by a particular state against the backdrop of the strategic environment in which it is located.