Balance of Power
Using two examples critically discuss the Balance of Power.
In order to understand the meaning of Balance of Power, we should ask ourselves the question what we understand by ‘power’. Hard to define it or measure it, power is the ability to “do something or act in a particular way” or as Nye (2009:65) argues “the ability to achieve one’s purposes or goals.’ In other words, the potential to influence other people to do what you want them to do. As many scholars would agree, balance of power can hardly have an exact definition. A compelling definition given by the nineteenth-century British liberal Richard Codden states that balance of power is “a chimera – an undescribed, indescribable, incomprehensible nothing”. However, in this essay we are going to try to understand, explore and critically discuss the nature of this concept using two different examples from the late 19th and 20th century history – the pre-WWI conditions and the Cold War.
To begin with, the 19th century was marked by stability and absence of warfare thanks to the desire to create equilibrium, peace and constrain international violence after the final defeat of Napoleon I in 1815. The attempt to create a true balance of power was fairly achieved using another principle aiming for peace – the concert of Europe. As Sheehan (1996:122) argues ‘the concert system was not a development of balance practice but rather represented a quite different approach to international security’. Furthermore, Fay(Fay cited in Sheehan 1996:122) adds that ‘The Concert aims to secure harmony and cooperation by conciliation and by minimising the tendency of the powers to group into opposing combinations’. (Watson cited in Sheehan 1996:126), however, criticises it by calling it a ‘diffused hegemony’. He suggests that it was a variant balance of power system, but it was only focused on ‘maintaining a balance between the interests of such a small number of major states that the distinction from effective
In order to understand the meaning of Balance of Power, we should ask ourselves the question what we understand by ‘power’. Hard to define it or measure it, power is the ability to “do something or act in a particular way” or as Nye (2009:65) argues “the ability to achieve one’s purposes or goals.’ In other words, the potential to influence other people to do what you want them to do. As many scholars would agree, balance of power can hardly have an exact definition. A compelling definition given by the nineteenth-century British liberal Richard Codden states that balance of power is “a chimera – an undescribed, indescribable, incomprehensible nothing”. However, in this essay we are going to try to understand, explore and critically discuss the nature of this concept using two different examples from the late 19th and 20th century history – the pre-WWI conditions and the Cold War.
To begin with, the 19th century was marked by stability and absence of warfare thanks to the desire to create equilibrium, peace and constrain international violence after the final defeat of Napoleon I in 1815. The attempt to create a true balance of power was fairly achieved using another principle aiming for peace – the concert of Europe. As Sheehan (1996:122) argues ‘the concert system was not a development of balance practice but rather represented a quite different approach to international security’. Furthermore, Fay(Fay cited in Sheehan 1996:122) adds that ‘The Concert aims to secure harmony and cooperation by conciliation and by minimising the tendency of the powers to group into opposing combinations’. (Watson cited in Sheehan 1996:126), however, criticises it by calling it a ‘diffused hegemony’. He suggests that it was a variant balance of power system, but it was only focused on ‘maintaining a balance between the interests of such a small number of major states that the distinction from effective
Bibliography: Nye, J. S. Jr. 2009. ‘The Cold War’, Understanding International Conflicts, London: Pearson Longman Rosecrance, R. 1974. ‘Kissinger, Bismarck and the Balance of Power’, Millenium – Journal of International Studies, 3: 45 Sheehan, M. 1996, Balance of Power History & Theory, London, New Fetter Lance