ABSTRACT

The stability of an international system will break down when the growing power of one state destroys the old network of relationships upon which the system was based. In this sense, a state that expands its power through a growth in population, trade, prosperity, industry or territory may be responsible for the breakdown of a system, even if it is not guilty of it. Specialists in the study of international relations refer to this perspective as the ‘systemic’ level of analysis, in which the whole system is taken into account when attempting to explain why certain events occurred. More important than the policies or the personalities of any given state or its leaders are shifts in the foundations of power, to which governments and statesmen are simply forced to respond.