Status and the Future of International Politics

Abstract

More than three decades ago, Kenneth Waltz (1979) theorized about the existence of a discernible hierarchy within an international system dominated by anarchy: the hierarchy of the major power states. While anarchy is a constant characteristic of international politics, the ordering among major powers is susceptible to slow but significant change. In the international system as defined by Waltz, the differing distribution of capabilities accounts for this change, constitutes the system’s main moving part, and seeks to explain why and how states respond to the pressures and constraints that ultimately result from anarchy. Waltz speculated that all states react by engaging in some variant of power balancing. However, states’ specific response to systemic stimuli depends on the number of major powers in the international system and if a state is a major power, on the position it occupies within such a hierarchy. Ultimately, according to Waltz (1979), international politics is shaped by the number of and ordering among the major powers in the international system.