The International Wanderings of a Liberal Idea, or Why Liberals Can Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Balance of Power

Boucoyannis, Deborah

doi:10.1017/s1537592707072180

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…My argument tracks with recent attempts to recover the "liberal" and "republican" dimensions of balance of power theory (Boucoyannis 2007;Deudney 2007). It also cautions against attempts to restrict balance of power dynamics to modern nation states (Nexon 2009a:350).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Why Europe Avoided Hegemony: A Historical Perspective on the Balance of Power

Møller

2014

Int Stud Q

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Recent work demonstrates that the European state system-which, since the Middle Ages, saw the recurrent formation of balances of power-constitutes a historical exception rather than the rule among anarchic international systems. In this study, I set out to explain why Europe avoided hegemony. I argue that the character of state-society relations at the time of intensified geopolitical competition leads to different systemwide outcomes with respect to balancing and hegemony. Where multiple privileged groups already exist, rulers must negotiate with a range of societal actors to extract revenue and resources for warfare. This further entrenches institutional constraints on rulers and the privileges enjoyed by societal groups, which in turn make it difficult for rulers to convert conquest into further expansion. In the absence of preexisting multiple privileged groups, however, geopolitical competition instead further weakens the ability of societal actors to check their rulers. This dynamic creates a return-to-scale logic that facilitates systemwide conquest. My argument accounts for the diverging trajectories of, on the one hand, medieval and early modern Europe and, on the other hand, ancient China-where the state of Qin eliminated its rivals and established universal domination.Why was European power-politics characterized by a sustained balance of power from the Middle Ages onwards? In particular, why did Europe see a series of bids for hegemony founder in the face of antihegemonic balancing (Watson 1992:260; Levy and Thompson 2010:8)? These might seem surprising questions. Balance of power theory remains one of the most important touchstones in security studies and international-relations theory. It predicts that multistate systems will form recurrent rough balancing equilibria that preclude universal domination (

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Why Europe Avoided Hegemony: A Historical Perspective on the Balance of Power

Møller

2014

Int Stud Q

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“…Would we consider that anarchical balancing or violent political contention under empire (see Nexon 2009, Ch. 3 and, especially, Deudney 1995Boucoyannis 2007)?…”

Section: Lessons From Theorizing Empiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond anarchy: logics of political organization, hierarchy, and international structure

2018

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Many scholars now argue for deemphasizing the importance of international anarchy in favor of focusing on hierarchy – patterns of super- and subordination – in world politics. We argue that only one kind of vertical stratification, governance hierarchy, actually challenges the states-under-anarchy framework. But the existence of such hierarchies overturns a number of standard ways of studying world politics. In order to theorize, and identify, variation in governance structures in world politics, we advocate a relational approach that focuses on three dimensions of hierarchy: the heterogeneity of contracting, the degree of autonomy enjoyed by central authorities, and the balance of investiture between segments and the center. This generates eight ideal-typical forms: national-states and empires, as well as symmetric and asymmetric variants of federations, confederations, and conciliar systems. We argue that political formations – governance assemblages – with elements of these ideal types are likely ubiquitous at multiple scales of world politics, including within, across, and among sovereign states. Our framework suggests that world politics is marked by a heterarchy of nested and overlapping political structures. We discuss broad implications for international-relations theory and comparative politics, and illustrate our approach through an analysis of contemporary China and the evolution of the British ‘Empire’ in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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“…2 It is worth pointing out in this context that realists have always been ambivalent about concentrations of power, predicting both that the international system would tend toward imbalance and that such imbalances would ultimately be corrected. Boucoyannis (2007) Beyond revisiting the classical realist canon, the contributors to Political Thought and International Relations identify ''realist'' strands in the thinking of influential scholars like Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, and Leo Strauss and explore some of the ways in which realism could contribute to contemporary debates in political theory (Bell 2009:3). I cannot do justice to what is a rich array of scholarship here, but a few chapters are worth singling out for their resonance with ongoing debates in the field.…”

Section: Classical Realism As a ''Discourse Of Disilluslionment''mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 2 It is worth pointing out in this context that realists have always been ambivalent about concentrations of power, predicting both that the international system would tend toward imbalance and that such imbalances would ultimately be corrected. Boucoyannis (2007) takes realists to task for this ambivalence. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Should Realism Return to its Roots?

Schuessler¹

2010

International Studies Review

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The International Wanderings of a Liberal Idea, or Why Liberals Can Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Balance of Power

Cited by 23 publications

References 80 publications

Why Europe Avoided Hegemony: A Historical Perspective on the Balance of Power

Why Europe Avoided Hegemony: A Historical Perspective on the Balance of Power

Beyond anarchy: logics of political organization, hierarchy, and international structure

Should Realism Return to its Roots?

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