The Balance of Power in World History

The balance of power is one of the most influential ideas in international relations, yet it has never been comprehensively examined in pre-modern or non-European contexts. This book redresses this imbalance. The authors present eight new case studies of balancing and balancing failure in pre-modern and non-European international systems.

'[...] the authors have addressed a crucially and lamentably under-researched area, and done a very good job in bringing material into the light that will generate a great deal of positive debate both within realism and outside it.' - Professor Michael Sheehan, University of Wales Swansea, UK

'...a welcome addition to the growing body of interdisciplinary research in the history of world politics.' Lucas Freire, Political Studies Review

Autorentext
WILLIAM J. BRENNER Doctoral Candidate, Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, USA DANIEL DEUDNEY Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, USA ARTHUR M. ECKSTEIN Professor of History, University of Maryland at College Park, USA VICTORIA TIN-BOR HUI Assistant Professor in Political Science, University of Notre Dame, USA CHARLES JONES Reader in the History of International Studies, University of Cambridge, UK DAVID KANG Associate Professor of Government, and Adjunct Associate Professor and Research Director, Center for International Business, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth, USA

Inhalt
Introduction: Balance and Hierarchy in International Systems; S.J.Kaufman, R.Little & W.C.Wohlforth Balancing and Balancing Failure in Biblical Times: Assyria and the Ancient Middle Eastern System 900-600 BCE; S.J.Kaufman & W.C.Wohlforth The Greek City States in the Fifth Century BCE: Persia and the Balance of Power; R.Little Intra-Greek Balancing, the Mediterranean Crisis of ca. 201-200 B.C., and the Rise of Rome; A.M.Eckstein The Forest and the King of Beasts: Hierarchy and Opposition in Ancient India (c.500 - c.232 BCE); W.J.Brenner The Triumph of Domination in the Ancient Chinese System; V.Tin-bor Hui 'A Republic for Expansion': The Roman Constitution and Empire and Balance of Power Theory; D.Deudney Hierarchy and Resistance in the American State-Systems, 1400-1800 CE; C.Jones Stability and Hierarchy in East Asian International Relations, 1300 to 1900CE; D.C.Kang Conclusion: Theoretical Insights from the Study of World History; S.J.Kaufman, R.Little & W.C.Wohlforth