ABSTRACT
In one dimension lies the enmity between states within the state system and its ‘reduction’, through various ordering strategies, to rivalry, forbearance or amity. Since the eighteenth century, the balance of power has been the primary device for containing enmity and preventing its escalation into war. Reciprocal obligation lay at the heart of the nuclear order that emerged during the Cold War and provided the essential foundation for its claim to international legitimacy. Whereas Ikenberry juxtaposes the power balance and constitutional approaches to international order, the two developed symbiotically during the Cold War, at least from the Cuban missile crisis onwards. Advocates of a more confrontational approach to transgressors, often entailing the use of force, stand accused of fomenting enmity and of disturbing the ‘regularities’ of international relations as expressed through international laws and norms and through the practice of diplomacy. True international order is first and foremost the antithesis of and antidote to enmity, with emphasis on the latter.
