Constructivism in unlikely places: how national identity influences Chinese and Russian behavior in areas of core interest and the Sino-Russian relationship
Journal: Maryland Shared Open Access Repository (USMAI Consortium)
Year: 2016

While realism provides an explanation for the nature of international relations within an anarchic arena, it sometimes falls short in explaining and predicting state behavior, including the foreign policy behavior of states with leadership of a realist orientation within their areas of core interest. Realism holds power as its key variable, proclaiming that states behave in ways so as to maximize their material capabilities in order to survive in an anarchic international setting. There is an ad