Podcast "Empires Strike Back - Did the 'Balance of Power' Just Make a Comeback?"
Ethics in Action Podcast
April 2022
Vladimir Petrovic in conversation with Nir Eisikovits,
Director of the Applied Ethics Center, University of Massachusetts Boston
For a while, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we could tell ourselves that the American-led liberal internationalist order was on the rise. That story had some big holes in it, but if we squinted a bit it was almost believable. Not "the end of history", but maybe a long vacation from it. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its insistence on declaring a "sphere of influence" free from western intervention, and its alliance with China change everything.
Within a few weeks an older picture of international order - where great powers check each other and make sure none becomes ascendant - reemerged. Is the Balance of Power Back? Did it ever really go away? And if it is back, what’s next?