ABSTRACT
This article criticizes the realist assumption that the international system is above domestic politics. Neoclassical realism, which can be considered as the latest version of the realist tradition, provides a fruitful analytical framework for this critique due to its approach that integrates the system and domestic politics while maintaining the assumption of the system’s dominant role by taking foreign policy institutions as intermediate variables of domestic politics. However, this article proposes that international institutions should also be considered as intermediate variables of the system and that a mechanism of interaction should be established between the system and domestic policy rather than a hierarchical relationship. To achieve this goal, the article proposes three extensions to neoclassical realism: 1) Include the classification of states, 2) Include the operation of the mechanism of interaction between the system and domestic politics, and 3) redefine international pressure. This paper chooses the international political process following the October 7th Aksa Flood operations in Gaza as a case study and discusses the consequences the pressures from US domestic politics has had on the system in terms of the mechanism of interaction between the system and domestic politics.