1. Project OF International Relations
Department: Bachelors of Business Administration
Topic: Balance of Power & Its Types
Saad Arif Sair

2. Balance of Power
 A balance of power is a state of stability between
competing forces. In international relations, it
refers to equilibrium among countries or alliances
to prevent any one entity from becoming too
strong and, thus, gaining the ability to enforce its
will upon the rest.

3. Characteristics
 The balance of power is subject to constant
changes From equilibrium to disequilibrium.
 It is not a gift of God but is achieved by the active
intervention of man.
 Real balance of power seldom exists, if war take
place it means real balance of power not there.

4. Simple balance of power
 Simple balance of power aims to preservation of
safety of the nationalities of the world.
 In simple balance of power there are two
powers/states required to establish a kind of
parity between them.
 Example of simple power balancing is Cold War
between United States and Soviet Union.

5. Complex balance of power
 Balance of power is considered complex if it is
concentrates on the preservation of peace due to
warring positions of the two militant nations.
 Europe in mid eighteenth century represented the
situation of complex balance of power.
 Balance of power between Pakistan and India also
has taken shift from simple to complex.

6. Local, Regional balance of power
 Local balance of power seeks to checkmate only
one power or state.
 Regional balance of power aims to maintaining
balance in a particular geographical or political
region.
 The United States, for example, is an actor in all
the regional balances of power within the world.

7. World wide balance of power
 The balance of power is regarded as worldwide
if it concerns more than one region.
 During the two world wars the principle of world
balance of power motivated the actions of
various states.

8. Rigid balance of power
 In rigid balance of power two groups of states take
a particular stand and are not willing to go back
from the decision.
 The rigid stand taken by USA and USSR as
leaders of the two groups which emerged after the
second world war, is an example of this type of
balance of power.

9. Flexible balance of power
 In flexible balance of power member of states
change their alignments and seek fresh alliances
due to changed circumstances.

10. Conclusion
 The balance of power has been a central concept
in the theory and practice of international relations
for the past five hundred years. It has also played
a key role in some of the most important attempts
to develop a theory of international politics in the
contemporary study of international relations.
Balance of Power, theory and policy of
international relations that asserts that the most
effective check on the power of a state is the
power of other states.