ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the international system was multipolar, with three contending political ideologies that spanned the political spectrum. International relations fully blossomed during the 1900s. The nation-state project, which had been the primary focus of political thought for 300 years, had lost its vigor and was eclipsed by a new and more challenging enterprise—the international order project. The shift in approach marked the outcome of the first great debate between the so-called idealists and realists within the discipline of international relations. The realist critique of the idealists and liberal internationalism that emerged in the late 1930s and 1940s was a reaction (perhaps an overreaction) to the shortcomings of the discipline during the interwar years that had made international organization or international law (with their obvious moralistic or reformist bent) its central focus. The realists' challenge of the purported dominance for nearly forty years of the idealists gained momentum after World War II.
