Balance of Power and Liberalism article
This is an excellent article from Deborah Boucoyannis entitled “The International Wanderings of a Liberal Idea, or Why Liberals Can Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Balance of Power”, published in the American Political Science Association journal, arguing that the balance of power is at heart (and historically) a liberal principle and that it can be seen as compatible with the modern, especially US-style, liberalism. It is of particular interest to liberal international lawyers who might feel a conflict between balance-of-power structures (often set up and enforced, at least in part, through law) and liberal goals. And of course realist legal scholars should take note (and confirm or argue against/etc.) as the article argues that realism is best identified with tendencies towards concentration. It would be interesting to test these theories out on IL and legal regimes.
In any event, hopefully re-workings of concepts such as this will help break up some of the camps up in IL scholarship, which so often seem to be overly-simplified versions of IR camps.
