1. 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). [Teaching Resource] © 2012 The Author This version available at: http://learningresources.lse.ac.uk/124/http://learningresources.lse.ac.uk/124/ Available in LSE Learning Resources Online: May 2012 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. This license allows the user to remix, tweak, and build upon the work even for commercial purposes, as long as the user credits the author and licenses their new creations under the identical terms. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://learningresources.lse.ac.uk/

2. IR100 Lecture 4 2011-12 George Lawson

3. 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

4. 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

5. Realism, version 1 ‘Morality is a function of power and not the other way around’

6. Realism, version 2 ‘What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear this caused in Sparta’. Image Placeholder Image: Mosaic from Gerusa. Subscription resource: No URL: http://www.bris.ac.uk/classics/thucydides/mosaic.jpg Edited: No This image was removed due to copyright being held by another party.

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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 …