What's the difference between Neorealism and Neoliberalism?

Question

Can someone explain to me the difference between Neorealism and Neoliberalism? What do these two theories have in common and what are their differences? It would be perfect to include a real life situation as well for a better understanding.

Answer 1

They are concepts in totally unrelated spheres of thought.

Neo-realism is a theory of international relations popular amongst mainstream scholars that originated with Kenneth Waltz and John Mearsheimer. It views the nature of human society as one of inherent conflict due to competition over scarce resources. It extends this worldview to the international arena, where it believes "anarchy" reigns. This means that states' actions can be explained in terms of securing their own national security and dominance over resources.

Neoliberalism is a set of economic policies that superficially involve a "retreat of the state" from economic matters. This entails structural adjustment programs imposed on Global South countries through the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which require governments to suppress unionization and sell national resources in exchange for loans. These loans are then used to place countries in a "debt trap," in which they become politically subordinate to the United States or other Western powers.

So, neo-realism can be used as a framework for scholars to try to understand neoliberal policies.