When you really need allies, you canвЂ™t be too choosy. Winston Churchill captured this logic perfectly when he quipped вЂњif Hitler invaded hell, I would at least make a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.вЂќ Franklin Delano Roosevelt expressed a similar sentiment when he said he вЂњwould hold hands with the devilвЂќ if it would help beat the Third Reich. Thus, the United States and Great Britain allied with the Soviet Union during World War II, because defeating Nazi Germany took precedence over their long-term concerns about communism. In extreme cases, forming a balancing coalition might require a state to fight alongside another country it previously regarded as an enemy or even one it understood would be a rival in the future. When facing a powerful or threatening state, a worried country can mobilize more of its own resources or seek an alliance with other states that face the same danger, in order to shift the balance more in its favor. Because there is no вЂњworld governmentвЂќ to protect states from each other, each has to rely on its own resources and strategies to avoid being conquered, coerced, or otherwise endangered.

The basic logic behind balance of power theory (or, if you prefer, balance of threat theory) is straightforward. leaders to act in ways that unwittingly push foes closer together, and to miss promising opportunities to drive them apart. This act of collective amnesia encourages U.S. Instead of asking why Russia and China are collaborating, or pondering what has brought Iran together with its various Middle East partners, they assume it is the result of shared authoritarianism, reflexive anti-Americanism, or some other form of ideological solidarity. Yet despite its long and distinguished history, this simple idea is often forgotten by AmericaвЂ™s foreign-policy elites.

Morgenthau, Robert Gilpin, and Kenneth Waltz. You can find this idea in ThucydidesвЂ™s Peloponnesian War, Thomas HobbesвЂ™s Leviathan, and the ancient Indian writer KautilyaвЂ™s Arthashastra (вЂњScience of PoliticsвЂќ), and it is central to the work of modern realists like E.H. If you took an introduction to international relations course in college and the instructor never mentioned the вЂњbalance of power,вЂќ please contact your alma mater for a refund.

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