From about 1950 until the end of the Cold War, realism was the dominant paradigm in International Relations in the United States and widely influential abroad. It never went unchallenged, and other paradigms have made considerable inroads. Within the realist paradigm there is now considerable diversity. Realism is unusual in being one of the few developments in International Relations theory that has had significant impact in the wider world. Policy-makers, military officers, intelligence officials, and journalists, and not just in the United States, tend to be far more accepting of the so-called verities of realism than most scholars.