Transcript What is International Relations?

George Lawson
IR100 - The structure of international
society: the balance of power (week 4)
Lecture slides
Original citation:
Lawson, G. (2012) IR100 - The structure of international society: the balance of power (week 4).
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IR100 Lecture 4 2011-12
George Lawson
The story so far
 the great transformation generates a core-periphery
international order sustained by coercive integration
 contemporary international society can be understood
as decentred globalism
 this substantive agenda is the backdrop to two big IR
ideas: balance of power and democratic peace, aka
realism and liberalism
Four promises, plus one more for luck
 The world comes first, the theory comes second
 No theory explains everything
 Theories may not always be useful
 Quite often, theories are complementary rather than
competing
 This is not the place for indulging in playground
name-calling
Realism, version 1
‘Morality is a function of power and not the
other way around’
Realism, version 2
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‘What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian
power and the fear this caused in Sparta’.
Four key realist precepts, plus one for luck
 The international realm is anarchic … and this matters
 In an anarchic system, security is a first-order concern
 The maximization of security means improving
material capabilities
 Its states who dunnit (particularly great powers)
 And … these precepts are timeless
Balance of power 1 – Waltz
 Balance of power is an imperative of the system
 The rise of one power is a threat to which others must
respond
 Therefore today? Balancing is coming … soon … ish
Balance of power 2 – Bull
 An anarchical society consists of five institutions:
 Diplomacy
 International law
 Great power management
 War
 Balance of power
 The balance of power is a social practice, not a system
imperative
Waltz vs. Bull vs. Wohlforth
 Waltz: balance of power is our jammy doughnut. Mmmm.
 But where’s the evidence of balancing today?
 Bull: balance of power is constructed by states-people
 But how much does this tell us?
 Wohlforth: balancing occurs only rarely in world history
So … does the democratic peace fare any better as IR’s master
idea? To be continued …