by mutual threat perceptions (Simensen, 1999, p. 395). Thus, this theory maintains that states are unitary actors with coherent sets of objective interests, which they pursue through the employment of international power politics (Goldstein, 4th ed., p. 140). The fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, however, dealt realism an almost insurmountable blow for only up to a point can the realist approach explain what happened then (Simensen, 1999, p. 395).
The armament buildup between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1980s proved the economic and technological superiority of the United States and forced Soviet military leaders to consider that they needed to enact internal reform if they wanted to ensure their status as a superpower (Simensen, 1999, p. 395). However, a realist approach would maintain that the conciliatory policy they then adopted toward the West, symbolized most strongly by Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev, implied to the world that Soviet forces would not be use
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