Trade wars are a recurring theme in interstate relations, even if the anomalous period of the Cold War gave the misimpression that high and low politics were no longer connected. This chapter explains the Realist perspective on trade relations and presents a framework for understanding the perspectives and options of different types of great powers, based on their distinct levels of market power (share of global imports) and market exposure (dependence on exports). These distinctions yield three archetypes, namely commercial great powers such as Victorian England, political great powers such as the United States, and disengaged great powers such as the Soviet Union. Key to understanding the position of China is that state’s movement across all three archetypes, such that it had once been disengaged, then was en route to becoming a great power, but changed direction in 2006 to become a political great power.