The War on Terrorism and the Balance of Power: The Paradoxes of American Hegemony

Abstract

This essay addresses the question of whether the war on terrorism has changed understanding of the balance of power as the best tool of realist theory for analysis of international relations by displacing traditional forms of balancing with an era of asymmetric warfare. After examining the key realist concepts of hegemony & balancing & then discussing whether terrorist violence is an asymmetric form of balancing, the implications for balance of power theories of the war on terror & the US hegemonic grand strategy are explored. While acknowledging current US hegemony, it is argued that the US' economic strength & military power may lure it into a situation of "imperial overstretch" & a consequent decline in its relative power, thus allowing other great powers to engage in counter-hegemonic balancing. J. Stanton