Los Emiratos Árabes Unidos e Israel: entre la hegemonía cooperativa y el soft balancing

El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en explicar las razones que han empujado a Israel y a los Emiratos Árabes Unidos a formalizar abiertamente una antigua cooperación discreta y si esta iniciativa constituye el comienzo de una futura hegemonía cooperativa bajo liderazgo norteamericano. Los resultados de la investigación indican que su principal propósito consiste en lograr una mayor autonomía con respecto a Estados Unidos, ya que ambos piensan que Washington presta poca atención a sus intereses respectivos. Por ello, la posibilidad de una hegemonía cooperativa resulta dudosa, mientras que las estrategias de soft balancing resultan más probables.

India Balancing China: Exploring Soft Balancing Through Indo-Pacific

India–China relation is witnessing its worst phase after the 1962 War. Recent aggression by the Chinese forces in the Galwan valley and killing of at least 20 Indian soldiers have posed serious security concerns for India. This article studies nature of threat China poses to India’s security and the latter’s choices to respond to it. In doing so, this article explores the theories of the balance of power, balance of threat and of balancing behaviour associated with realism. It argues that China is a threat to India’s security in the South Asian region as well as to its larger economic and geopolitical interests in world politics. Current realities of world politics restrict India’s choices, and if it has to survive and find its rightful place and increase influence in world affairs, it has no choice but to balance Chinese behaviour and not the power. This is a shift from the Waltzian analysis, which focuses on the balance of power. This article argues that when states do not have adequate internal capabilities to balance a state, they need not necessarily align with the threat (bandwagon) or with another great power to counter the threat. In an interconnected world, they have the choice to balance the behaviour of states that pose a threat by performing soft balancing. India has the choice to balance Chinese behaviour by making a regional alliance in the Indo-Pacific region, and it will be in India’s interests to carry out soft balancing. This article problematizes the proposition suggested by Rajesh Rajagopalan, in India’s Strategic Choices: China and the Balance of Power in Asia, that, to balance China, India should align with the United States. This article concludes with the argument that alignment with the United States is a perilous affair, and it shall give rise to greater insecurities. The more favourable alternative for India is to balance Chinese behaviour through soft balancing via Indo-Pacific.

Polityka Turcji w rejonie Morza Czarnego – relacje z Ukrainą a miękkie równoważenie Rosji

Against the backdrop of Turkish-Russian cooperative rivalry – an ambiguous relationship fraught with strategic competition on the one hand, and driven by cooperation in key areas (energy, defence) on the other, the article surveys the growing interdependencies between Turkey and Ukraine and seeks to answer the question whether closer bonds – political and military – between these two countries could be seen as a strategy of soft balancing against Russia. On a broader level, the article speculates on the complex nature of Turkey-Russia relations, which have become increasingly volatile, transactional, opportunistic and compartmentalized.

Latin America’s Evolving Contribution to Peaceful Change in the International System

Latin America has long aspired for an interstate system based on the principles of nonintervention and adherence to international law. Over time, the region has become increasingly free of war, and interstate disputes are frequently settled via diplomacy or by international courts. But it has achieved a largely “negative” peace as peaceful relations in the region are neither the result of nor have produced deeper commercial integration, effective regional organizations, or epistemic security communities. This chapter examines realist, liberal, and constructivist explanations to explain the sources of peace and peaceful change in Latin America, as well as how structural changes in the international system have affected the region. In particular, it analyzes how Latin America’s relative weakness in terms of material capabilities has led it to rely on diplomacy, “soft balancing,” and norms entrepreneurship in international law to secure its interest in a progressively more peaceful and rule-bound international order.

Conceptualizing Soft Balancing Beyond Cold War. What’s Changed, What Remains the Same?

This article is a systematic inquiry into the nature and role of soft balancing in the contemporary theory and practice of international relations. By wading into the contentious debate concerning the place and legitimacy of soft balancing, the article explores the theoretical prominence of the concept and adds methodological content to the study. Thus, the research produces a quantitative corpus-based and thematic analysis of the existing soft balancing literature to demarcate the boundary of the concept. This approach enables the author to enhance conventional theorization and not only identify the main gaps within the existing studies but go beyond the popular post-Cold War era discussion. Additionally, this article addresses the question of how soft balancing is distinguished from other concepts in the balance of power theory. Ultimately, the study reveals that despite its theoretical and empirical potential, the soft balancing research agenda remains underdeveloped, largely due to the limitation in the empirical content. Precisely, the empirical studies are limited to balance of power rhetoric akin to hard vs. soft and its implications for the United States’ hegemonic power.