Balance of power

A distribution of capabilities among states intended to prevent any one state from dominating the others. It can arise through alliances, military buildups, or shifts in influence.

Balancing (international relations): A strategy in which states counter a powerful or threatening state by building capabilities or forming alliances. This is the central response through which states try to preserve a balance.
Peace of Westphalia: The 1648 settlements that ended the Thirty Years' War and reshaped political authority in Europe. Its settlement became associated with a European order of sovereign states and competing powers.
War of the Spanish Succession: A European conflict fought from 1701 to 1714 over the Spanish succession and the prospect of Bourbon dynastic union. The anti-Bourbon coalition fought to prevent France and Spain from being ruled together.
Collective security: A system in which states pledge to oppose aggression against any member through a shared response. It seeks security through collective rules rather than shifting coalitions against particular powers.
Bandwagoning: A strategy in which a state aligns with a powerful or threatening state rather than opposing it. It describes the alternative to resisting a rising power through balancing.
Treaty of Utrecht: The 1713 agreements that ended much of the War of the Spanish Succession and redistributed European territories. Its negotiators explicitly invoked preventing the union of the French and Spanish crowns.
Napoleonic Wars: A series of European conflicts from 1803 to 1815 between Napoleonic France and shifting coalitions. Repeated coalitions formed as French power threatened to dominate continental Europe.
Liberal institutionalism: An international-relations theory that explains cooperation through institutions, interdependence, and repeated interaction. It emphasizes mechanisms for cooperation that balance-of-power accounts often treat as secondary.
Alliance: A formal or informal agreement among states to coordinate policy or provide mutual support. Alliances let states pool capabilities against a potential regional hegemon.
David Hume: A Scottish philosopher whose essays include an influential discussion of the balance of power. His 1742 essay examined the principle as a recurring feature of European politics.

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