Interstate order shaped by decision-makers’ actions

Abstract International relations theories based on the structural paradigm have failed to explain the mechanism driving the changes observed in the interstate order across the Cold War, the post-Cold War and the current era of counter-globalization. This is because the structural paradigm ignores the impact of personal relationship between decision-makers on interstate relations. Furthermore, the structural paradigm cannot account for incidences when interstate order changes without structural change. To address the decision-maker paradigm's investigating the mechanism of interstate changes can improve modern IR theories’ explanatory power. This paradigm provides explanations for changes occurring at both the individual and system levels that the structural paradigm cannot explain. This paper categorizes decision-makers according to the combined outcomes based on a dual-axes system of morality and capability, creating the following four ideal types: humane authority, hegemony, egalitarian, and paper-tiger. The mechanism of forming interstate order is the accumulation of actions by decision-makers. The propensity of the decision-makers toward an ideal type results in four different outcomes in the interstate order: norms-adoption, big-stick, noninterference, and terror-balance.