ABSTRACT
Kenneth Waltz attempted to save the overlap between realist theory and the boundaries of the discipline of International Relations. Other realists took a less academic path. They tried to rescue the overlap between the expanding agenda of international politics and a redefined realism. Whereas Kenneth Waltz's theory reacted to the turmoil of the discipline by restricting the global ‘net’ to its classical international component, other realists accepted the challenge and started to redefine central categories of their theory in order to match a wider part of the global agenda. It is perhaps not fortuitous that these realist theories became part of a different branch of International Relations, if not a different discipline, namely International Political Economy.
