Liberalism
...their security and therefore power is the key factor in relations between states. Furthermore, the realist argument is that stability can only be effectively constructed through balance of power, to which international institutions and morality play a marginal role. Balance of power is a system of international relations in which nations seek to maintain an approximate equilibrium of power among many rivals, preventing the predominance of any one state. Crucial to the system is a willingness on the part of individual national governments to change alliances as the situation demands in order to maintain the balance. Realists also argue that human reason is limited and untrustworthy. Human history of interstate politics has always been power politics and realists do not see any reason to expect this trajectory to change. In the mid 1950s the liberal tradition in the U.S. reasserted itself. Economics made liberal precepts into a logical system and systems analysis was used instead of power theories in explanation (245). Two new approaches were introduced into the liberal ideology. First, as for individual humans, the assumption that irrational, violent and unjust behavior will follow if human reason is corrupted was made. In a crisis situation, it was recognized that such behavior may corrupt the reason of politicians. Secondly, state and corporate actors were working side-by-side, so the liberals challenged the realist assumptions about the primacy of the state in world politics and the anarchic nature of world society (245). The r...