Strengths of Neoliberal Institutions

Five specific strengths associated with the theory of neoliberal institutionalism will be presented in this section of the report. First, Robert Keohane and Joseph S. Nye have pointed out that a major strength of this approach to studying international relations and positing the structure of those relations is the recognition of growing interdependence among societies. New technologies have changed a feature of complex interdependence -- i.e., a world in which security and force matter less and countries are connected by multiple social and political relationships. What has changed is that the dramatic cheapening of information transmission has opened the field to loosely structured network organizations and even individuals. Consequently, growing interdependence is seen by these analysts as weakening the power of states, a power which is further weakened by greater access to all kinds of information made possible by new technologies.

A second strength of neoliberal institutionalism is that it fully takes into account the growing interconnectedness of national economies and the creation of a global economic order in which states and their ability to compete may be less sig

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A fifth weakness identified within neoliberal institutionalism is the assertion that states often fail to keep their promise and thus to resolve the prisoner's dilemma. What realism offers in contrast is that states have many goals in mixed interest interactions. Neoliberal institutionalists believe that the goal and statist actor is to achieve the greatest possible individual gain. If states are not basically atomistic actors, they are likely to recognize that there are very real limits to their ability to cheat when playing such games as the prisoner's dilemma. States act not only in their own best, but also in the best interests of their allies. They seek compliance and relative achievement of gains and uses to which gaps favoring partners may be employed. They are concerned about their partners' compliance with their agenda and with their partners' relative gains. In other words, realist rather than neoliberal institutionalist theory recognizes that states have sensitivity to the needs of their partners and a willingness to sacrifice somewhat on behalf of partners.

nificant than markets. In realist theories, states are seen as primary actors who are able to move political and economic events forward. What neoliberal institutionalism brings to the table is the recognition that in a globalized economy, states are not necessarily as powerful or as omnipotent as they once may have been. Other organizations, including both private sector, for-profit multinational companies and nongovernmental organizations with a stake in development, play a more significant role in determining the geopolitical agenda than do states. This feature of neoliberal institutionalism provides the theory with a lens that can be used to explore the decline of state influence over the global economy.

This is nowhere more evident than in the case of the Unite