Introduction

Abstract

While the case study in this book is Britain, this book is really about leadership and the role that leaders play in the formation of effective balances of power. This book was written with the expectation that the balance of power as a mechanism for preserving systemic stability and geopolitical independence has returned to prominence in recent years. Absent world government and in the anarchic order in which international politics plays out, the ability of great powers to forcibly deny the territorial and geopolitical ambitions of other great powers historically has been crucial in preventing any one state from exercising complete hegemony over the international system and controlling global resources for its exclusive use. In more recent times, arguments have been advanced that posit that the sharp edges of international politics can be blunted by channeling interactions through the agency of international institutions but, even according to theorists oriented to this approach, the ultimate guarantor of independence in the international system lies in the ability to deny the ambitions of others by force.¹