Grieco

Grieco makes an interesting point about neoliberals and their acceptance of certain realist principles. He states "Hegemonic power may be necessary to establish cooperation among states, neoliberals argue, but it may endure after hegemony with the aid of institutions." With the decline of the US as a hegemonic power and the rise of other states and actors such as the EU, it will be interesting to see whether or not this argument will hold true. Past periods of transition, which had no apparent hegemonic powers, have always been associated with periods of instability and war. With all of the international organizations established under the period of US hegemony, whether political, economic or social, it will be interesting to see whether or not the neoliberal theory holds up in this new context.

On the same note, I think that Grieco should take greater consideration of context. His largest argument in his article circles around the hypocrisy of the neoliberal acceptance of realist principles and he continues to list competing fundamental hypothesis based on these theories. What he forgets, however, is that decisions and the reasoning behind them are never black and white. There are many external factors that influence decisions on the durability of arrangements, number of partners, etc. States act differently under different pressures, just as politics within a state can swing from left to right over a period of time. It may be that in accepting some realist values and the inconsistency of motives and decisions, the neoliberal argument may actually be closer to reality.