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Comment on this article   Kenneth N. Waltz's Theory of International Politics profoundly affected international relations theory. Structural realism as developed by Waltz argues that the anarchic system and the distribution of capabilities are powerful constraints and inducements which produce “sameness” in the behavior of states. For Waltz, international relations is anarchic and not hierarchical, populated by functionally similar units, and the structure of the international system or polarity varies based on the distribution of capabilities. The anarchic nature of the international system, and the assumptions that states “at a minimum, seek their own preservation” and are socialized to imitate each other, allows Waltz to explain recurring international patterns and outcomes such as balances of power, war proneness of different distributions of power, and recurrent alliance formation ( 1979 :118; for realist theories of foreign policy, see the literature on classical realism such as Gulick 1955 ; Wolfers 1962 ; Morgenthau 1963 ; Thucydides 1982 ; and neoclassical realism including Friedberg 1988 ; Snyder 1991 ; Wohlforth 1993 ; Christensen 1996 ; Elman 1996 ; Rose 1998 ; Schweller 2006 ; Rathbun 2008 ; Lobell et al. 2009 ). Waltz's structural realism influenced many of the major debates in the field in the 1980s and 1990s including neoliberal institutionalism ... log in or subscribe to read full text