| The purpose of this article is to explore globalization and European integration and the link between the two developments from a realist perspective. I demonstrate how realists have engaged in analyses of globalization and European integration but have so far failed to provide a link between the two developments. I argue that realists can convincingly provide such a link by utilizing the perspective's often neglected process variables: socialization, competition and interaction capacity. Using these variables, I demonstrate how the dynamics of power politics perfectly consistent with realism may result in an international system characterized by actors and processes incompatible with realist predictions. The article is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the applicability of international relations theory to globalization and European integration and to the contemporary debate between realists and their critics on the development of the realist research programme. |