| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
A balance of power exists when there is parity or stability between competing forces. As a term in international law for a "just equilibrium" between the members of the family of nations it expresses the doctrine intended to prevent any one state from becoming sufficiently strong to enforce its will upon the rest.
The principle involved in this, as Hume pointed out in his Essay on the Balance of Power, is as old as history, and was perfectly familiar to the ancients both as political theorists and as practical statesmen. In its essence it is no more than a precept of commonsense born of experience and the instinct of self-preservation ; for, as Polybius very clearly puts it (lib. i. cap. 83)
It was not, however, until the beginning of the 17th century, when the science of international law took shape at the hands of Grotius and his successors, that the theory of the balance of power was formulated as a fundamental principle of diplomacyThis page is about negotiations; for the board game, see Diplomacy (game). United Nations, with its headquarters in New York City, is the largest international diplomatic organization. Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between a. According to this the EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sean states formed a sort of federal communityCommunity is a set of people (or agents in a more abstract sense) with some shared element. Also a community is a group of people or things that live in the same area. The substance of shared element varies widely, from a situation to interest to lives an, the fundamental condition of which was the preservation of the balance of power, i.e. such a disposition of things that no one state or potentate should be able absolutely to predominate and prescribe laws to the rest; and, since all were equally interested in this settlement, it was held to be the interest, the rightFor the direction right see left and right or starboard. For the political trend or ideology, see Right wing. The following article discusses the notion of rights in matters of philosophy and Law. At its most fundamental, a right is a claim, on other pers and the dutyIn economics, a duty is a kind of tax; often associated with customs. Duty in ethics, in a job, or simply after making any agreement about who does what, expresses that which one must do an obligation. Religious and political establishments (structures in of every power to interfere, even by force of arms, when any of the conditions of this settlement were infringed or assailed by any other member of the community.
This principle, once formulated, became an axiomFor the algebra software named Axiom, see Axiom (algebra software). For the 1970s Australian rock music group, see Axiom (band). In epistemology, an axiom is a self-evident truth upon which other knowledge must rest, from which other knowledge is built up of political sciencePolitical science is the study of politics. It involves the study of structure and process in government or any equivalent system that attempts to assure safety, fairness, and closure across a broad range of risks and access to a broad range of commons fo. FénelonFrancois de Salignac de la Mothe more commonly known as Francois Fenelon ( 1651 1715), was a French Roman Catholic theologian, poet and writer. Fenelon is best remembered as the author of The Adventures of Telemachus a scabrous attack on the French monarc, in his Instructions, impressed the axiom on the young Louis, Duke of Burgundy ; Frederick the Great in his Anti-Machiavel, proclaimed it to the world; Friedrich von Gentz re-stated it with admirable clearness in 1806 in his Fragments on the Balance of Power. It formed the basis of the coalitions against Louis XIV and Napoleon, and the occasion, or the excuse, for most of the wars which desolated Europe between the Peace of Westphalia ( 1648) and the Congress of Vienna ( 1814).
During the greater part of the 19th century the series of national upheavals which remodelled the map of Europe obscured the balance of power; yet it underlay all the efforts of diplomacy to stay or to direct the elemental forces let loose by the French Revolution, and with the restoration of comparative calm it once more emerged as the motive for the various political alliances of which the ostensible object was the preservation of peace.
An equilibrium between the various powers which form the family of nations is, in fact, - as Professor L. Oppenheim (Internal. Law, i. 73) justly points out - essential to the very existence of any international law. In the absence of any central authority, the only sanction behind the code of rules established by custom or defined in treaties, known as "international law", is the capacity of the powers to hold each other in check. If this system fails, nothing prevents any state sufficiently powerful from ignoring the law and acting solely according to its convenience and its interests.
Within a balance of power system, a state may choose to engage in either balancing or bandwagoning behavior. In a time of war, whether a state chooses correctly to balance or bandwagon may well determine the survival of the state.
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica