Monday, October 27, 2008

Does the European concept of “the balance of power” still have meaning? Does there need to be a counterbalance to the U.S. power in the world today?

In modern Europe, I do not think that there is stilla balance of power. Since the European Union has united all European economies and countries under one loose affiliation there is no real struggle for power. There may be disagreements over territorial matters, or issues with foreign policies, all countries are working towards the same goals. Since the league of nations, NATO, and the United Nations each country around the globe has a voice in a clooective forum, no large country can totally take all power. While it is true that a large country like America can have a significant influence over the descisions made by NATO and the UN, both organizations work for the good of all countries involved. Back post WW2 America may have needed a balance of power since we held the UN's main opinions and we became imperialistic in the sense that we wanted to capture all communist countries and convert them. We became too headstrong and involved in too many countries, and no one really stopped or questioned us. If they did, we called them communist and withdrew diplomatic ties. We bacme too powerful as a country and back then we needed some one to check us becasue nowadays our internatioal relations have taken a dive for the worse. In the current times no one respects us a country anymore, and we have lost our power in the same ways that we gained it, by warring with other countries that opposed our views. We are slowly losing our world power status unless drastic repair to our international affairs is done.

3 comments:

Laxgoalie21 said...

i actulally feel that the UN and NATO is a improved form of the balince of power. they are very mutch allike if you subtract the war portion. and wasent that why the UN was established? to attempted to elliminate the possibility of war?

Becca DC said...

I know the way that the US handled communism was extreme but it wasn't exactly a good way of life. All I'm saying is that, it was a good decision to try and demolish communism in the first place even though they went about it all wrong.

Anonymous said...

I agree that the UN was, in part, established to maintain the balance of power. However, the lack of enforcement makes the UN pretty in effective in my opinion.