Hegemonic Threats and Great Power Balancing in Europe, 1494/5-2000.

The balance of power is a venerable concept in international relations theory, but it is plagued by ambiguities about what the concept means and what the theory purports to explain, and the key proposition that states balance against concentrations of power or hegemonic threats is rarely if ever subjected to systematic empirical test. We argue that despite these ambiguities and disagreements, there is one proposition that nearly all balance of power theorists and their critics as well would accept as an accurate reflection of the theory and that provides the basis for a Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]