Winter 2005/06
"Correspondence: Striking the Balance"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 30
By Robert Art, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1974-1977, 1978-1979; Editorial Board, Quarterly Journal: International Security, Stephen Brooks, Former Fellow, International Security Program, 2003-2004, William Wohlforth, Keir A. Lieber and Gerard Alexander
Some scholars argue that the balance of power theory that explained the bipolar and multipolar systems of the past is irrelevant in a unipolar world. These letters debate the possibility of expanding the traditional definition of "balancing" to account for policies that states are pursuing today.
Summer 2005
"Hard Times for Soft Balancing"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 30
By Stephen Brooks, Former Fellow, International Security Program, 2003-2004 and William Wohlforth
The development of the concept of soft balancing is an attempt to stretch balance of power theory to encompass an international system in which traditional counterbalancing among the major powers is absent.
Spring 2002
"From Old Thinking to New Thinking in Qualitative Research"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 4, volume 26
By Stephen Brooks, Former Fellow, International Security Program, 2003-2004 and William Wohlforth
After correcting what the authors state is Robert English’s “misunderstanding of [their] research design,” the authors elaborate their article’s contribution on “how to assess the causal implications of widely accepted findings” and the significance of this practice for qualitative research.
Winter 2000/01
"Power, Globalization, and the End of the Cold War: Reevaluating a Landmark Case for Ideas"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 25
By Stephen Brooks, Former Fellow, International Security Program, 2003-2004 and William Wohlforth
The authors marshal evidence from recently released sources to argue that shifting material pressures resulting from changes in the structure of global production had a much greater influence on Soviet foreign policy in the 1980s than previously thought.
Summer 2000
"Brother, Can You Spare a Paradigm? (Or Was Anybody Ever a Realist?)"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 25
By Peter D. Feaver, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1985-1987, Andrew Moravcsik, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1986-1988, Jeffrey W. Legro, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1987-1989, Gunther Hellmann, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1987-1988, Randall Schweller, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro and William Wohlforth
In this issue's correspondence section, Peter Feaver, Gunther Hellmann, Randall Schweller, Jeffrey Taliaferro, and William Wohlforth argue against points made in Jeffrey Legro and Andrew Moravcsik's fall 1999 article "Is Anybody Still a Realist?" Legro and Moravcsik respond to their critics.
Summer 1999
"The Stability of a Unipolar World"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 2, volume 24
Some have defined U.S. preponderance as "a unipolar moment"; others have suggested that the current structure is "uni-multipolar." Regardless of the characterization, the conventional wisdom maintains that unipolarity is unstable and conflict prone, and thus unlikely to prevail over the long term. In our lead article, the author challenges this logic.
