Theory guides the course of research and affects our understanding of the world by prioritizing the problems to be analyzed and by providing a methodological approach to the study of these problems. In terms of the study of international relations, one of the oldest and yet most persistent theoretical approaches is known as the "balance of power" paradigm. The balance of power theory has undergone many developments through history and assumed many different forms, but the overall concept remains relevant to global affairs today.
This research charts the origins and development of balance of power theory and defines this methodological perspective according to its contemporary model. The contemporary balance of power theory is then applied to recent events in Middle Eastern international relations, particularly the role and functions of the Gulf Cooperation Council in managing regional conflicts.
Realism Versus Utopianism in international Theory
The idea that an equilibrium in political affairs is the ideal condition of society is as old as Greco-Roman philosophy. It is rooted in a realistic rather than utopian perspective toward human nature. A student of politics may begin with the paradigm that humanity's natural state is fundamentally orderly and peaceable, or one may commence with the assumption that humanity's natural state is one of conflict (Seabury, 1965, p. 5). It is this latter assumption that dominated the thinking of philosophers in ancient Greece and Rome. Both Plato and Aristotle (more so in the case of Aristotle) sought to create a polity based on equilibrium and the "Golden Mean." The ancient Greek historian Thucydides applied the concept of equilibrium-or, more accurately, lack of equilibrium-in understanding the behavior of nation-states in the time of war in his classic treatise, History of the Peloponnesian War.
Despite the early contribution by Thucydides, the emphasis on equilibrium theory w...