Strategic Studies Quarterly

Abstract Balance of power theory, once regarded as the “iron law” of international politics, encountered serious explanatory challenges in the post–Cold War era. However, China’s rapid rise over the past two decades has once again brought the logic of balancing to the center of academic debate. Nevertheless, the principal balance of power in the contemporary international system—between the United States and a rising China—has moved beyond traditional patterns of balancing toward an active strategy that can be described as the “disruption of the balancing process.” Accordingly, this study distinguishes between “balancing as an automatic structural outcome” and “balance-making as an intentional, agent-driven process” in order to address the following question: how can a dominant power delay this outcome and render its position of superiority more durable? Drawing on neoclassical realist insights and integrating the concepts of “underbalancing” and “resource mobilization,” the study argues that the United States has disrupted the natural process of international balancing through a model of “hybrid and networked balance-making.” This interventionist strategy, grounded in the securitization of trade and technology, seeks to prevent the emergence of rival poles in the global order by moving beyond traditional alliances toward new forms of multilateral linkages. It should be noted that this research adopts a fundamental–developmental orientation and employs a case study (U.S. balancing disruption vis-à-vis China) alongside process tracing. To achieve its objectives, the study utilizes a mixed-methods approach within a scientific-empirical paradigm, enabling both systematic data usage and analytical interpretation.

Abstract In this article, the concept of "Security Consultant" is introduced as a novel approach in local literature and its theoretical foundations are examined. The main concern of the researcher is to find a specific pattern and framework for the mission of a security consultant, for this purpose, the approach of the United States of America to provide security consultant assistance to the allied countries has been discussed based on the available documents and sources. This research was done by thematic analysis method and the elements and components of the pattern were recognized based on the themes identified in the sources. The case study of the United States consultant model shows that targeting, establishing the integration of actions and dividing specific tasks among the three main institutions in providing security consultant assistance (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense and USAID); Clarifying the security sector or the target society of the aid receiving country as well as the leveling of these aids are among the main components of the American model of security consultancy.

Abstract The hegemonic stability theory as a branch of realism in the international relations entails a hegemony leadership for regular and stability of international liberal economy. The hegemony state, in one side, enjoys the greatest and the strength economic capabilities (besides military strength and ideological influence) and the other side, lively promotes the liberal economy in the international sphere. According to the theory, while the international relations field is an area of competition, and for struggle for power among nations ( nation-states, and also the power the relative phenomena, so the free flow of liberal economy is deal with power equivalence and the hidden hand is inadequate. The appreciate distribution of power is the hegemonic stability so that the hegemony state is enforcing the liberal economy regulation with the consent of the weaker states especially the secondary powers. The theory appeared two times in the history of international political economy: second half of 19 century under the Britain hegemony and after Second World War under U.S. hegemony. The U.S. hegemony was challenged by terminated the fixed foreign exchange rate of the Breton – Woods in the late of 1960s. The United States of America was started the new phrase of reinforcing it's hegemony after cold war and emerging the new international political atmosphere. So this article pays more attention to this new phrase.