A third group of scholars combines the insights of these two approaches and claims that singling out one set of variables at the negligence of others will not bring us anywhere close to understanding the complexity of the real world. They suggest that scholars had better adopt a more holistic approach in this process. The so-called neo-classical realist approach in International Relations can for example be interpreted as a scholarly attempt at successfully merging the tangible and intangible motivations of states’ foreign policy behaviors (Lobell, Ripsman and Taliaferro, 2009). Put simply, neoclassical realism posits that making sense of the tangible factors out there is made through the intangible factors that constitute states’ identities and values.