History Main / BalanceOfPower

* One of the most worrying points about TheNewTens has been the disruption of the balance of power. After TheGreatPoliticsMessUp, the United States was the sole superpower left on Earth. This has lasted for all of two decades before that power was challenged, now from multiple angles. The United States has a declining position in the world, with a large portion of the population favoring isolationist policies. Many possible contenders to the US hegemony have arisen: {{UsefulNotes/Russia}} has been working hard to re-assert itself on the world stage with its intervention in the Syrian Civil War, it's annexation of Crimea and subsequent involvement in the Ukrainian Civil War, and a restructuring of its military. {{UsefulNotes/China}} is a major contender, having invested strongly in {{UsefulNotes/Africa}} and [[{{UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica}} Latin America]], as well as having a continually growing economy that may end up surpassing the US. The [[{{Main/EuropeanUnion}} European Union]] is another contender, as it becomes increasingly strong and centralized despite the withdrawal of [[{{UsefulNotes/Britain}} the UK]]. What is clear is that without a major reversal of fortunes, the "American Century" might be coming to a premature end, and this severe upset in the balance of power could lead to future conflict or destabilization.

* The UsefulNotes/ColdWar was very much about this, although the [[PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower Superior Firepower]] and MnogoNukes meant that outright war was relatively unlikely. Instead, the US and USSR decided to fight by proxy. There is some variation as both the United States and Soviet Union were so powerful that even if one of them lost a useful ally like China - as per the Sino-Soviet split and Sino-American rapprochement - the balance never shifted firmly in favor of the other side.

** This was the them of the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries ''TOS'']] epsiode "A Private Little War". Kirk finds out the Klingons have started arming one group on a primitive planet. His only solution is to arm the other side to keep one from overwhelming the other. He chooses the possibility of perpetual hostilities over the genocide of one side.

** It's pretty much shown that the "balance" between the younger races is mainly due to political, religious, etc. choices by the more powerful races. While, Humans, Narns, and the League are roughly equal, Centauri technology is well ahead of them and the Minbari are even farther ahead to where the Centauri never tried challenging them even at their most aggressive. The real BalanceOfPower is between the Vorlons and the Shadows who far outstrip any of the younger races in power. Their struggle is about how many B's they can get to fight for their causes.

* Some newly found Soviet conversation logs from around 1990 prove that MargaretThatcher was actively opposing the reunification of Germany even when the whole east of Europe was already revolting against the Soviets. Only to keep the Balance of Power intact.

* In ''Series/IntoTheBadlands'' the Barons are warlords who control fixed territories and are each in charge or one main trade resource. The Barons do not really mind when one Baron is deposed through KlingonPromotion or even assassinated by another Baron. However, they take a grim view when one Baron seizes territory belonging to another Baron since this upsets the balance of power. When Baron Quinn goes to war against the Widow, he seizes her oil fields which immediately sets all the other Barons against him.

* Except there was one '''Enormous''' E - the Persians. While they failed in direct assault, they always had more than enough [[EveryManHasHisPrice gold]] to ensure the balance was maintained. At least two Greek invasions of Asia were forced to stop due to the Persians bribing the invaders' neighbors into a backstab. In the end, a treaty was signed making the Persian king the main power ensuring peace in Greece.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' or "How Can Seven Kingdoms Continue To Be One Without The Tyrants Who Welded It Into One Still Being In Charge?" The answer is... finding a new balance is [[{{Realpolitik}}a rather tough process]] with permanent schism very much on the cards. And, that's without Icy Doom coming from the North and Hot, Angry Dragons coming from the East to complicate things.

* Ancient Rhodes, a noted MerchantCity in the Hellenistic era survived by it's expertise in maintaining the balance between the Successor States, and ensuring that it's small but [[BadassArmy extremely skilled navy]] was capable of tilting the balance back whenever one warlord became more powerful then the Rhodians liked.

* Before the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Second World War]] there was Great Britain and France, the expanding Axis Powers, and the Glorious Soviet Union, each with an ideology that was unacceptable to the other two. Both the Glorious Soviets and the British knew that if they gone to war with Germany afterward they would be weakened and the other would exploit it and attack immediately. In the end the Glorious Soviet Union made a pact with Hitler to divide Poland and force Britain to go to war with the Axis Powers.

** Ancient Mayan city-states decllined in a similar way, as well as literal PoisoningTheWell

* The ''Manga/OnePiece'' 'verse has a Balance of Power crucial to the overall plot of the story. Types A and B consist of Marine Headquarters versus the Four Emperors (The World Government's military and the four most powerful pirate crews in the world, respectively). In the middle are the Seven Warlords of the Sea, who (on paper at least) are a Type-C, aiding the World Government against the Emperors. However, almost all of them are carrying out their own agendas on the side and some of them have casual and even friendly contact with some Emperors and up-and-coming pirates, making them more of an Type-E in practice. Threats to this balance include single-minded pirates like [[SpannerInTheWorks Monkey D. Luffy]] and the deliberate actions of [[LaResistance Dragon the Revolutionary]].

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''[[{{Foundation}} Foundation Trilogy]]'' starts out this way. As the Galactic Empire starts to decline, the planet of Terminus is surrounded by the 'Four Kingdoms', who are looking to expand their own influence. They've also reverted to primitive forms of technology though, so when Salvor Hardin, the Mayor of Terminus, lets slip to one of the Four Kingdoms' ambassadors that Terminus still has nuclear power, it looks like Terminus is going to get invaded for its technology. Hardin, the MagnificentBastard that he is, ''also'' let slip Terminus has nuclear power to the other three Kingdoms. None of the four kingdoms are willing to invade Terminus now, under threat of joint retaliation from the other three kingdoms.

** Intervention on the side of the Entente in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne was done to smooth over domestic unrest because Irish Home Rule was about to come into effect and the country was being wracked by massive social unrest instigated by Womens' Rights Activists (who wanted female suffrage) and striking Labour Unions (who wanted an end to child-labour, lethal working conditions, and seventy-hour weeks) - meanwhile, the left wing of the Labour Party was doing its best to channel all of this into Revolution. The 'best' solution - a years-long, cripplingly-expensive War Of Attrition[[note]] Forget 'Home By Christmas', everyone at the top knew what they were getting themselves into. Even the Schlieffen Plan wasn't 'Capture Paris', it was 'get as close to Paris as possible and thereby capture or destroy the bulk of French Industry, which is in the north-east'. To be fair they did manage to capture Belgium, the most heavily-industrialised country in Europe, and a full half of France's pre-war coal supply in just a few months. [[/note]]- demonstrates the seriousness of Britain's 1914 domestic political crisis.

* Pre-UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne Europe was much like this, except that there were ''three to six'' top-tier powers (Britain, Germany, and France at minimum, then Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Italy), with alliances shifting more frequently than you can shake a stick at. On top of that, there were the smaller powers, such as the neutral Low Countries, and the newly-minted and [[PatrioticFervor aggressively nationalistic]] countries of the Balkans (Serbia, Greece, and Romania topping the list in bellgerency and grandiose designs).

* Before the [[WorldWarII Second World War]] there was Great Britain and France, the expanding Axis Powers, and the Glorious Soviet Union, each with an ideology that was unacceptable to the other two. Both the Glorious Soviets and the British knew that if they gone to war with Germany afterward they would be weakened and the other would exploit it and attack immediately. In the end the Glorious Soviet Union made a pact with Hitler to divide Poland and force Britain to go to war with the Axis Powers.

-->--'''Sir Humphrey''', ''Series/YesMinister''

* ''RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' initially starts with a bunch of warlords carving out territory for themselves throughout China, but eventually the power consolidates around the three main rivals Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan. The balance sets in after the Battle of Red Cliffs, where the Sun and Liu factions put a large damper on Cao Cao's quest to reunify China.
* [[Creator/IsaacAsimov Isaac Asimov's]] ''[[{{Foundation}} Foundation Trilogy]]'' starts out this way. As the Galactic Empire starts to decline, the planet of Terminus is surrounded by the 'Four Kingdoms', who are looking to expand their own influence. They've also reverted to primitive forms of technology though, so when Salvor Hardin, the Mayor of Terminus, lets slip to one of the Four Kingdoms' ambassadors that Terminus still has nuclear power, it looks like Terminus is going to get invaded for its technology. Hardin, the MagnificentBastard that he is, ''also'' let slip Terminus has nuclear power to the other three Kingdoms. None of the four kingdoms are willing to invade Terminus now, under threat of joint retaliation from the other three kingdoms.
* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' or "How Can Seven Kingdoms Continue To Be One Without The Tyrants Who Welded It Into One Still Being In Charge?" The answer is... finding a new balance is [[{{Realpolitik}}a rather tough process]] with permanent schism very much on the cards. And, that's without Icy Doom coming from the North and Hot, Angry Dragons coming from the East to complicate things.

-->Ajão realized he was telling the literal truth. If a hundred-ton moon rock were exchanged for an equivalent volume of--say--air at Giri's surface, the net potential energy released would be equivalent to a small fission bomb. Perhaps that explained the strange glassy plain Draere had photographed in the southern hemisphere.

* In Franchise/StarTrek, TheFederation, [[ProudWarriorRace Klingon Empire]], and [[SpaceRomans Romulan Star Empire]] all see themselves as A with the other two acting as B and E at different times over the course of more than a century. Once other powers like the Borg and Dominion came into play, this balance fell apart. [[CloakAndDagger Section 31]] made it its mission during [=DS9=]'s final season to permanently tip the balance in favor of the Federation.

* ''RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms''

* Before the [[WorldWarII Second World War]] there was Great Britain and France, the expanding Axis Powers, and the Glorious Soviet Union, each with an ideology that was unacceptable to the other two. Both the Glorious Soviets and the British knew that if they gone to war with Germany afterward they would be weakened and the other would exploit it and attack immediately. in the end the Glorious Soviet Union made a pact with Hitler to divide Poland and force Britain to go to war with the Axis Powers.

* Before the [[WorldWarII Second World War]] there were Great Britain and France, the expanding Axis Powers, , and the Glorious Soviet Union,each with an ideology that was unacceptable to the other two. both the Glorious Soviets and the British knew that if they gone to war with Germany afterward they would be weakened and the other would exploit it and attack immediately. in the end the Glorious Soviet Union made a pact with Hitler to divide Poland and force Britain to go to war with the Axis Powers.

* before the [[WorldWarII Second World War]] there were great britain and france, the expanding axis powers, , and the soviet union,each with an ideology that was unaccaptable to the other two. both the soviets and the britons knew that if they gone to war with germany afterward they whold be weakend and the other whold exploit it and attack imeadetly. in the end the soviet made a pact with hitler to divide poland and force britain to go to war with the axis powers.

* It has been argued that much of England's and then Great Britain's foreign policy from the 1500s until the 20th century was keeping a balance between France and Spain (and later Germany), to ensure that neither got big enough to take on England/Britain itself. This was explicitly spelled out as foreign office policy in ''Series/YesMinister'', in both past and present. It was claimed the only reason Britain went into the EU was to ensure they could keep the other major powers acting without them. However, ''in reality'' England/GB's Balance-Of-Power 'Policy' has vastly more exceptions than not: the ''only'' wars that actually fit the model are The Napoleonic and Second World Wars. England and later Britain did take a lesson from The Hundred Years' War, but that lesson was not 'prevent formation of continental superpowers', it was '[[RealPolitik don't go to war unless we get more stuff/money from it than we put in]]'.

* ''{{Diplomacy}}'' is practically a research project into this trope. [[UpToEleven With seven A's and B's, whom can devolve into C's and D's as the game develops. And really skillful players could bring them back to A's and B's.]]