Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject Politics - General and Theories of International Politics, grade: 1,7, University of Leipzig, course: European Peace and Security Policy, language: English, abstract: In this paper, the overarching question of the functioning of international relations is addressed based on academic studies. The theories of neorealism and constructivism with their explanatory approaches seem to fit the example particularly well. In the comparison of the two theories and application to the example of the Nord Stream 2 debate in the EU, the status quo of the modus operandi of international relations will be characterized. Specifically, the question will be addressed to what extent the Nord Stream 2 debate can be explained with the help of the perspectives of realism and constructivism. Regarding the procedure, first, the methods of literature review and qualitative content analysis are discussed. Then, the theories of neorealism and constructivism are dealt with and the understanding that is to apply in this study is described. After that, the state of the research is discussed so that the case studies to be examined can be presented immediately following. Finally, the results of the analysis are presented, and a conclusion is drawn, including an answer to the research question.