The emergence of the theory of interdependence has meant an important milestone in the evolution of studies on international relations. Its emergence marked a break in the debate on the elements that had characterized the analysis of international politics, basically the Anglo-Saxon tradition. The objective of this work is, on the one hand, to highlight the main postulates and premises of this theory, evaluating its major contributions and its most notorious limitations; and on the other, to analyze whether its questioning of certain fundamental assumptions of the realist theoretical approach has led to the development of a new paradigmatic approach to the study of international relations. To carry out these tasks, two of the most relevant works by Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye are taken as a primary point of reference.