Now, with a better understanding of the three theoretical approaches, I would argue that realism would be best of the three to explain the way in which states should interact in the international system. For example: The Cold War. “Realism dominated in the Cold War years because it provided simple but powerful explanations for war, alliances, imperialism, obstacles to cooperation and other international phenomena, and because its emphasis on competition was consistent with the center feature of the American-Soviet rivalry (Waltz, 1998).” In the article by Waltz, scholars argued that the United States kept foreign policy that connect directly to realist principles meaning their actions could still be leaning towards protecting the United States allowing the United States to advance its own