Review of International Studies

Table of Contents - 1989 - Volume 15, Special Issue 02  

Research Article

The balance of power—controversial but indispensable?

Moorhead Wright

The controversies surrounding the balance of power are both ancient and enduring, as the articles in this issue make clear. This brief concluding note highlights some of the convergences and differences in their approaches to these controversies. The choice of themes for this analysis is personal and selective, but it does reflect the central issues of balance of power theory and practice.

Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. He edited Theory and Practice of the Balance of Power: 1486–1914, published in 1975, He is currently working on a book on diplomacy (with Keith Hamilton).