IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v17y1973i1p33-61.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Balance of Power in International History

Author

Listed:
  • Brian Healy

    (Center for International Studies Cornell University)

  • Arthur Stein

    (Center for International Studies Cornell University)

Abstract

Many observers have recently noted that the international system is evolving into a multipolar world. At the same time, the notion of balance of power is being severely criticized for its vagueness and inconsistency. Seven empirically testable propositions which exemplify refined and narrowed notions of balance of power are reviewed and analyzed in this paper. These propositions, authored by A. L. Burns, M. Kaplan, D. Singer and M. Small, F. H. Hinsley, R. Rosecrance, and F. Harary concern one of four major approaches to the multipolar system: (1) the rules of a theoretical balance of power system, (2) the functioning of alliances, (3) historical systemic periodization, and (4) the application of structural balance theory to the interna tional system. The Situational Analysis Project provided the data for testing these propositions over the first twelve years of the "Bismarckian system," 1870 through 1881. The propositions did not hold up well under detailed testing. The rules of the balance of power system were violated—in particular, an "ingratiation effect" was found in place of the balance-restoring mechanism; alliances led to a lessening of cooperation and attention between allies; and historical periodization was found to be inaccurate. The findings, however, did support the fundamental assumption underlying the structural balance theory. Since the future may be quite like the nineteenth century in terms of structure, a reevaluation of the Bismarckian system is not an irrelevant exercise but rather an inquiry into the functioning of a system we may actually have to operate.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian Healy & Arthur Stein, 1973. "The Balance of Power in International History," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 17(1), pages 33-61, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:17:y:1973:i:1:p:33-61
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jcr.sagepub.com/content/17/1/33.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Lai, 2001. "Alignment, Structural Balance, and International Conflict in the Middle East, 1948-1978," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 18(2), pages 211-249, February.
    2. H. Brooke McDonald & Richard Rosecrance, 1985. "Alliance and Structural Balance in the International System," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 29(1), pages 57-82, March.
    3. Ido Oren, 1994. "The Indo-Pakistani Arms Competition," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 38(2), pages 185-214, June.
    4. Michael D. Intriligator, 1982. "Research on Conflict Theory," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 26(2), pages 307-327, June.
    5. Kris De Jaegher, 2021. "Common‐Enemy Effects: Multidisciplinary Antecedents And Economic Perspectives," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 3-33, February.
    6. Melvin Small, 1977. "Doing Diplomatic History by the Numbers," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 21(1), pages 23-34, March.
    7. Paul W. Schroeder, 1977. "Quantitative Studies in the Balance of Power," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 21(1), pages 3-22, March.
    8. Schwartz, Thomas, 2010. "The friend of my enemy is my enemy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend: Axioms for structural balance and bi-polarity," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 39-45, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:17:y:1973:i:1:p:33-61. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.