Neorealism, specifically Kenneth N. Waltz's balance-of-power theory, holds that the
international system compels states, especially the great powers, to adopt similar adaptive
strategies or risk elimination as independent political entities. States balance against powerful
states or coalitions by forging alliances with weaker states or by augmenting their own
capabilities. The international system provides strong incentives for states to adopt new military
methods and to emulate the military, technological, and governing practices of the most
successful states in the system. Balance-of-power theory, therefore, expects the rapid and uniform
diffusion of military, technological, and governing practices resulting in a high degree of
convergence in states' internal composition. It also assumes that leaders have ready access to their
material resources of their societies.
The puzzle, as both non-realists and realists point out, is that states do not always balance
against powerful or threatening states; even when they do, such balancing behavior is rarely
automatic or efficient. The rate and scope of military and technological diffusion and emulation is
rarely even across states. The ability of elites to mobilize human and material resource in
response to international threats varies greatly. In short, domestic level variables determine the
amount of military power that states can project abroad.
The Argument
This paper examines the resource extraction model of the state in neoclassical realism, a
growing body of realist theories of foreign policy.
international system provides incentives for great powers and lesser states to emulate the
successful political, military, and technological practices of the system's leading states or to
counter such practices through innovation. The level of external vulnerability, which is a function
of the relative distribution of power, geography, and the offense-defense balance, pushes states
augment their capabilities. However, domestic politics limit the efficiency with which states can
respond to these structural imperatives. As Gideon Rose notes, "Gross assessment of the
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Convention