international distribution of power" are inadequate in explaining variation in different states'
foreign policies "because national leaders may not have easy access to a country's total material
power resources."
Neoclassical realism suggests that the coercive extractive and contractual mobilization
capacity of state institutions, path dependence, and ideology and nationalism facilitate or inhibit
an efficient response to emerging international threats and opportunities. States that initially enjoy
high levels of extraction and mobilization capacity vis-à-vis their domestic societies, but that also
face high levels of external vulnerability, are more likely to emulate the military, governing, and
technological practices of the system's most successful states, at least in the short-run. On the
other hand, states that must augment those capacities, but that also face high levels of external
vulnerability, will have greater difficulty in pursuing emulation, at least in the short-run. In the
long-term, states can try to increase their extractive and mobilization capabilities, and
consequently their ability to pursue emulation or innovation, by purveying nationalism or statist
ideology. However, a lack of nationalist sentiment among the population or an anti-statist
ideology held by the public or elites can limit the state's ability to emulate or innovate. States that
initially enjoy high levels of extraction and mobilization capacity, but that also enjoy relatively
low levels of external vulnerability, have the luxury of engaging in innovation to enhance their
long-term security and power. Conversely, states that do not enjoy high levels of mobilization and
extraction capacity, but that also face high levels of external vulnerability, are less likely to
pursue emulation or innovation. Regardless of initial extractive and mobilization capabilities,
states' adaptive strategies often become path dependent. Once having embarked upon a particular
set of novel and expensive adaptive strategies, domestic politics can inhibit leaders' ability to
change course and adopt alternative strategies despite objective changes in the strategic
environment.
The resource extraction model has implications for the development of international
relations theory, international history, and current policy debates. Proponents of constructivism
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Convention