The future of the balance of power concept

2004 ◽  
pp. 200-212
Keyword(s):  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Future ◽  
Power Concept

3. Realism

2021 ◽  
pp. 66-102
Author(s):  
Georg Sørensen ◽  
Jørgen Møller ◽  
Robert Jackson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Offensive Realism ◽  
Classical Realism ◽  
Defensive Realism ◽  
Power Concept

This chapter examines the realist tradition in international relations (IR), which is best seen as a research programme with several approaches using a common starting point. It highlights an important dichotomy in realist thought between classical realism and contemporary realism, including strategic and structural approaches. After describing the elements of realism, the chapter discusses the international thought of three outstanding classical realists of the past: Thucydides, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes. It then analyses the classical realist thought of Hans J. Morgenthau, along with strategic realism, neorealism, and neoclassical realism. Special attention is devoted to the defensive realism of Kenneth Waltz and the offensive realism of John Mearsheimer. Furthermore, the chapter looks at the recent theoretical debate among realist IR scholars concerning the relevance of the balance of power concept and it shows that realists often disagree among themselves. The chapter concludes with an overview of how the different realist theories treat international and domestic factors.

The Karonga War: commercial rivalry and politics of survival

1980 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
Owen J. M. Kalinga
Keyword(s):  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
African Lakes ◽  
Delicate Balance ◽  
The Future

This article suggests a new explanation for the Karonga War of 1887–9. It argues that the advent of different groups of people into northern Malawi in the 1870s and 1880s drastically altered the delicate balance of power in the region. Initially it had been advantageous to the Ngonde to welcome the Swahili both commercially and as a means of deterring further attacks. The settlement of the Henga-Kamanga in the area greatly increased the security of Ungonde and the Nyakyusa ceased to be a serious threat. This fairly comfortable situation in Ungonde was completely disrupted by the arrival of the Europeans. In the first place the African Lakes Company befriended the Nyakyusa and then the Ngonde, forming a trading post at Karonga which was used by all peoples. The Nyakyusa and the Ngonde thereafter had a common interest and were no longer enemies. In consequence the Henga-Kamanga ceased to have an important role in Ungonde. Secondly, the African Lakes Company seemed to offer better trading prospects. This, plus the fact that the Ngoni were no longer threatening the Ngonde, marked the decline in power of the Swahili. The newly formed alliance between the Ngonde, the Nyakyusa and the Europeans posed a threat to the future of the Henga-Kamanga and the Swahili in Ungonde. All this finally led to the Karonga War.

Resilience and the Future Balance of Power

Survival ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-232
Author(s):  
Dhruva Jaishankar
Keyword(s):  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Future

America Unrivalled: The Future of the Balance of Power

2003 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Gideon Rose ◽  
G. John Ikenberry
Keyword(s):  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Future

‘Arbitress of the Universe’

2020 ◽  
pp. 337-378
Author(s):  
D.H. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International System ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Commercial Policy ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
The Future ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Universe

This chapter looks at the theories of geopolitics, political economy, and constitutional order that accompanied post-war visions of British hegemony, and how the patriot movement came to repurpose these ideas as an argument for American independence. Throughout the imperial crisis, colonists discussed imperial commercial policy in the context of geopolitics, and these discussions bore fruit in the conception of an empire not as a proto-federation but as an unequal league, in which trade and diplomacy were governed from the metropole. The leading voices of the patriot movement would endorse this vision of British power until—and in some cases beyond—the threshold of armed conflict. When the turn to revolution and secession finally came, it too was mediated by ideas about the balance of power, the geopolitics of empire, and the future shape of the international system that lay deep in the colonial past.

General deterrence and the balance of power

1989 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
General Deterrence ◽  
Important Development ◽  
Post War ◽  
Power Concept

The advent of nuclear weapons is clearly the single most important development which post-war balance of power thinking has had to accommodate. Although there have been earlier attempts to explore this relationship,1 an examination of the current debate on deterrence should throw some light on the issue of the continuing relevance of the balance of power concept.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document