The study of international relations in general and of international economic relations in particular, provides opportunities for using the methodology of new institutional economics (or its close analogs in other social sciences) to analyze political and economic developments on the global arena. Modern paradigms of international relations represent different cases of institutional analysis applied to the same subject but based on different assumptions, different ethical / philosophical approaches, and relying upon different basic facts or axioms. This paper gives an overview of the key paradigms of the international relations (Realism / Neorealism, Liberalism / Neoliberalism, Marxism / Neomarxism and Constructivism) from the institutional perspective, and examines the current economic conflict between the US and People’s Republic of China from the perspective of each paradigm. From the institutional / new institutional methodological perspective, it is interesting to examine how each paradigm of the theory of international relations views international actors and institutions through which they interact. The knowledge about modern paradigms of international relations is necessary for correct interpretation of the academic discourse on the matter, as well as of the policy advice offered by the academic and expert community to policymakers.