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The distribution of power between states at any given time.
An international distribution of power favouring the supporters of the status quo and thereby likely to deter any revisionist state or alliance of states from attacking them. In reality a preponderance of power in favour of the former, this is described as an ‘equilibrium’ to avoid provoking the latter.
The means by which this equilibrium is achieved, in other words, the main international institution (sense 2), other than diplomacy and international law, by which states preserves themselves against threats from their hegemonial or imperialist (sense 2) fellows. (In practice, this may mean preserving the major ones at the expense of the lesser.) The balance of power in this sense consists of a configuration of alliances shaped, among other things, by broad acceptance of certain practical rules or precepts: for example, that the most effective bulwark against a revisionist power is a coalition of status quo powers, and that squeamishness about the domestic policies of potential allies is an expensive luxury. Many hoped that this traditional approach of the European states-system to the problem of international order would be replaced, or at least modified, by the collective security procedures introduced in the twentieth century; however, these proved disappointing. As ‘equilibrium’ or as the means of achieving it, the balance of power is the jewel in the crown of the approach to international politics known as realism (sense 3). See also Kissinger; Metternich. |
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