Factors Affecting Stability of the Balance of Power

S THE territorial boundary between the East and West begins to harden, there is some evidence that a balance of power, whether in fact or only in effect, soon will be established,1 with the Soviet Union and its satellites2 on one side and the United States and those nations which have accepted American economic aid or other forms of cooperation on the other.3 With the freezing or stabilizing of the frontiers, the limits of peaceful expansion will have been reached, and it is quite likely that the efforts of the super powers then will be turned, momentarily at least, to consolidation of their positions within their respective spheres of influence.4 This occurrence would follow the classic pattern of power politics, for it has been observed that in one stage of the struggle between great powers in a state of international anarchy-that of alignment in preparation for the actual duel for supremacy 5-nations effect ententes and alliances which often have resulted in the formation of the opposing groups into what was recognized as an equilibrium or balance of power.6

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