Analyzing change in international politics: The new institutionalism and the interpretative approach

This paper argues that realism misinterprets change in the international system. Realism conceives of states as actors and international regimes as variables that affect national strategies. Alternatively, we can think of states as structures and regimes as part of the overall context in which interests are defined. States conceived as structures offer rich insights into the causes and consequences of international politics. And regimes conceived as a context in which interests are defined offer a broad perspective of the interaction between norms and interests in international politics. The paper concludes by suggesting that it may be time to forego an exclusive reliance on the Eurocentric, Western state system for the derivation of analytical categories. Instead we may benefit also from studying the historical experience of Asian empires while developing analytical categories which may be useful for the analysis of current international developments.