Meaning of Balance of Power by Andrew O. Eze

BALANCE OF POWER

     The oldest and most commonly held theory is that peace results when several states, improving their national power and forming alliances, balance one another (Roskin et al 1988). Power is the capacity or ability to achieve one’s objective with or without the consent of another. It is the centre of politics because one with political power can do everything both lawful and unlawful.

     Unfortunately, this power is unbalanced both locally and internationally. Onuoha in his book entitled Beyond Diplomacy: Contemporary Issues in International Relations, (2009) analyses the concept of balance of power systematically. He argues that the international system is characterized with anarchy and competition. That, “the concept of balance of power assumes that through shifting alliances and countervailing, pressures, no one power or combination of powers will be allowed to grow so strong as to threaten the security of the rest.”

     Moreover, Sidney Fay, (as quoted in Onuoha, 2009) defined balance of power as “the just equilibrium in power among the members of family of nations as to prevent any one of them from becoming sufficiently strong to enforce its will upon another.” The current power configuration in the world negates the principle of balance of power.

      Contemporarily, world power is configured in the favour of the west especially the United States at the expense of other nations. We are now in a Unipolar world in which the United States has gained hegemony to determine who gets what, when and how in international affairs. But one thing that is permanent in the world is change and there are three stages in the live of every empire namely: the rise, the apex and the fall.

     Besides, the focal aim of the concept of balance of power is to ensure sovereignty of all nations. The direct opposite of balance of power is “bandwagoning”.  Bandwagoning is a situation whereby states seek security by joining or mingling with the dominant power (dependency syndrome). Contemporarily, what is in practice now is bandwagoning. Every third world country want to identify and be in line with the west instead of them to form formidable alliance to crusade against the status quo of western hegemony in order to right what has been asymmetrically wronged in the global system. It is so unfortunate and irritating that they (poor countries) preferred to be bandwagoning instead of balancing. (See bandwagoing, unipolarity)