Are Realist and Liberal ideals still applicable in Global Politics?

Realism

 
Painting of Realist founder Hans Morgenthau.

Realism is an ideology  which claims it views the world in a "realistic" way, they aim to avoid wishful thinking. Realists believe that global politics is about power and self interest, as Hans Morgenthau states "politics is a struggle of power over men, and whatever its ultimate aim may be, power is its immediate goal and the modes of acquiring, maintaining and demonstrating it determine the technique of political action". According to realists that power politics is based on two core assumptions:

1. People are essentially selfish and competitive, meaning that egotism the defining characteristic of human nature.
2. The In terms of Global politics the state-system is a form of international anarchy, in that their is no higher authority than the sovereignty in  each individual state. 

Realist theory can be summed up in a equation: egotism+anarchy=power politics. Their are four themes to realism: State egoism, Statecraft, International anarchy and finally Polarity and stability 

Evaluating Realism, is it still relevant?

Realism was dominant during the post war period, Its relevance slightly slipped after the cold war however, as realist believe in Bi-polarity which disappeared after the cold war because the USSR was no longer a superpower. In the modern world it could be said that Realism dose not exist on a global scale, because realists believe that states should be left to run themselves and this does not always happen in the modern world because of US foreign policy and the "war on terror" which means the US intervenes in other state in order to get rid of terrorism and spread democracy, which is not realist and may be considered as "post neorealism" or "neoclassical realism". Despite all this however the overall relevance of global realism is rarely doubted and should be considered when analyzing international relations.

Liberalism

The founders of liberalism.

Liberals believe in harmony and balance between competing interests such as different groups and cultures and although the accept that individual people and States can be selfish they also believe that humans have a genuine desire to be good and care about the whole community not just themselves and when conflict does occur Liberals believe that most of the time a natural equilibrium will occur. Although Liberal views on international politics do have some similarities to realists views one of the key differences is that liberals believe their is a lot of cooperation between the different countries in order to keep peace. Their are thee different branches of liberalism:

1. Interdependence Liberalism.
2. Republican Liberalism.  
3. Liberal Institutionalism.

Liberals do not believe that war is inevitable and that world trade and global institutions such as the UN and the EU helps countries bargain, discuss issues and prevent war.

Evaluating Liberalism, is it still relevant? 

Liberalism has received interest since the 1970s, due to the increase in Globalisation and the the Liberal political economy help showed the positives of Globalisation. Liberalism, however has received criticism because the different strands of Liberal thinking often contradict each other as some unconditionally support free trade and others also believe in free trade  but with restrictions and regulations on capitalism to avoid exploitation, these liberals tend also to believe in restrictions on transnational corporations so they don't end up being more powerful then certain countries thus undermining democracy where as the other liberals would argue that corporate power is necessary to keeping peace among nations (Dell theory of conflict prevention). Despite  its contradictions Liberalism is still seen as an important Ideology that should always be considered in international politics because of it belief in corporation are a necessity.