Balance of power in international relations

defines international relations as “the way in which two or more nations interact with and regard each other, especially in the context of political, economic, or cultural relationships”. However, what to include and exclude in the definition is a controversial topic and there is still no decisive answer of what international relations means. Scholars have been suggesting various definitions, for instance, one source stated that International Relations (i.e. the study of international relations,…

question is not who but rather what caused the war. The Preliminary Peace conference’s decision on the responsibility of the authors of the war establishes a broad view of who and how initiated the war. The decision to blame only a couple of super powers is absurd considering that more than two participated in the war. According to Hunt Tooley’s more narrow explanation the blame does not lay solely on Germany and Austria- Hungary, because there are various political, economic, military, and…

1919-1939. During this period, Carr seeks to establish that the development of international relations had transgressed toward a moral idealism that would lead to a second world war. Carr compiles this assertion in his criticism of the breakdown of the utopian conception of morality. The transformation of world politics has encouraged the formations of new linkages between the study of change in international relations and the normative consideration of alternative principles of world politics.…

The United Nations, since its implementation in 1945, has done much to try regulate international relations, and increase living standards globally. However, there is severe, ideological and structural limitations to the UN’s ability to regulate states and enforce its regulations, rendering it largely ineffective. Initially, the UN was created to be a mediator between states in order to conduct international relations in a relatively peaceful way, and establish a system which can deploy…

than its rivals. Neoliberalism is a theory shaped by the ideas of commercial, republican, sociological, and institutional liberalism. They see the international system as anarchic but believe that relations can be managed. Neoliberals think actors with common interests will try to maximize absolute gains. When applying liberal ideas to the international system today, we find two responses to the problems and possibilities posed by globalization. The first response is that of the liberalism of…

The field of international politics is a vastly complex field that can be difficult to interpret and make sense of. There is no supreme governing power, only sovereign states. Theories can be used as a sort of lens to find patterns in the behavior of states and determine how likely cooperation is in the international system. In this essay, I will be presenting the Neorealist argument that states are self-interested actors concerned with security and survival, and the Neoliberal Institutionalist…

felt that the nature of the international system had changed with the end of bipolarity. Bipolarity can be defined as a system of world order in which the majority of global economic, military and cultural influence is held between two states. The fall of the Soviet Union displayed their inability to maintain their position and challenged the structure of international politics. Waltz believed that in the years to come, three great powers would rise. These great powers included, “Germany or a…

of view and the neoliberal point of view of international cooperation. The neorealist believe that it would be difficult to have international cooperation because they are worried about having equal distribution of power within states, and being able to trust other states. The neoliberal believes that international cooperation will naturally occur if the state’s will allow it to happen. Neoliberals believe that with absolute gain, which are international actors determining the interest of the…

the balance of power system and liberals with the power of trade, interdependency and democracy, constructivists are most concerned with the power of ideas. For constructivists, political order arises from a shared understanding amongst individuals. In this, people’s understanding of their interests is shaped by the ideas that they adopt. Constructivists argue that international reality is socially constructed. They are primarily concerned with the role of ideas in shaping the international…

Power and interests have always been the basis of the relationship among societies. International orders emerge to establish how states relate to each other and change due to major clashes between great powers. Along the history, the quest for the survival and development of civilizations around the world evolved around the amount of power they have and the interests they share. With the evolution of societies, distribution of power was necessarily a zero sum situation. To explain this, the…