nternational relations and positing the structure of those relations is the recognition of growing interdependence among societies. New technologies have changed a feature of complex interdependence -- i.e., a world in which security and force matter less and countries are connected by multiple social and political relationships. What has changed is that the dramatic cheapening of information transmission has opened the field to loosely structured network organizations and even individuals. Consequently, growing interdependence is seen by these analysts as weakening the power of states, a power which is further weakened by greater access to all kinds of information made possible by new technologies.
A second strength of neoliberal institutionalism is that it fully takes into account the growing interconnectedness of national economies and the creation of a global economic order in which states and their ability to compete may be less significant than markets. In realist theories, states are seen as primary actors who are able to move political and economic events forward. What neoliberal institutionalism brings to the table is the recognition that in a globalized economy, states are not necessarily as powerful or as omnipotent as they once may have been. Other organizations, including both private sector, for-profit multinational companies and nongovernmental organizations with a stake in development, play a more significant role in determining the geopolitical agenda than do states. This feature of neoliberal institutionalism provides the theory with a lens that can be used to explore the decline of state influence over the global economy.
A third strength of neoliberal institutionalism identified by Jennifer Sterling-Folker is that this particular theory provides an excellent strategy for explaining short-term behavioral cooperation in the moment and the development of this cooperation into ongoing communal cooper...