A-Z of IR: A is for 'Anarchy' and B is for 'Balance of power'

Inspired by the British Academy’s focus on Engaging the Public with Humanities and the Social Sciences (2023), in October 2024, Adrian Gallagher (Leeds) launched an A-Z in International Politics online and free of charge. This 26 part series over 26 weeks introduces key concepts such as A for Anarchy, B for Balance of Power, C for Cooperation and so forth. They are released on Instagram (Prof_Politics), TikTok (Professor_Politics), LinkedIn, and YouTube (@ProfessorGallagher). 

Simply speaking, these are two minute videos with one released each week. To date, Instagram has generated more than 38,000 views, 2000 interactions and 1200 followers, TikTok 22,243 views and 62 followers, YouTube over 1000 views and 41 subscribers, and LinkedIn around 10,000 views and 100 connections. 

Adrian said:

“It is an embarrassing leap into the unknown but in a world increasingly full of misinformation, division and hatred, academics have a responsibility to speak up.”

“I am learning lessons along the way and whilst my priority is finishing a monograph ‘Saving States to Save Strangers: Mass Atrocity Prevention in the Central African Republic’, I hope to disseminate public engagement findings in 2025 and beyond. One of the surprising aspects has been the genuine appetite for such a series.”

Here are just some of the comments from his viewers:

• ‘Great content, useful, insightful and interesting’.
• ‘I love what you are doing. I've been looking for an Instagram page like yours for ages, thank you for making politics more accessible and digestible for everyone'.
• ‘This needs to be made into a documentary’.
• ‘Your videos, all of them so far are class’.
• ‘You are brilliant at explaining things on a very tangible level thank you’
• ‘Where was this content when I was writing an undergraduate dissertation on international law’.
• ‘Just came across your page, really enjoyed ya [sic] reels’.
• ‘Really enjoying following you and expanding my knowledge’.
• ‘Thank you explaining it [hegemony] in such a well articulated easy to understand way. It was hugely helpful’.

A is for 'Anarchy'

When we think of 'humankind' we sometimes forget that, rightly or wrongly, humans have divied themselves up among nation states. Within states, there exist governments. However, this does not apply to the international - there is no world government that can enforce laws in the way national governments can. This is what the term anarchy means in international studies - not chaos or disorder as we tend to think of the word. If we think of anarchy rather than humanity, we can understand the world very differently.

The implications of anarchy are what underpin our field of study.

B is for 'Balance of power'

Why would seemingly completely different states form alliances? Why would Britain ally with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany?

Balance of power refers to an alliance between states to prevent the potential dominance of another. Churchill's Britain saw Stalin's USSR as the lesser of two evils and forged an alliance to counter a threat. This balancing against imperial ambitions can be seen throughout history. Could we understand AUKUS in the same way?

Through the lens of balancing we can understand patterns of behaviour throughout history, and the concept lies at the heart of international studies.

The series returns with the letters 'C' and 'D' next week!

Photo by Robert Stump on Unsplash