ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the advocates of multipolarity and the strategy of balance of power. It looks at the question of why two almost contradictory concepts balance of power and hegemony, both applicable to the realist paradigm, are being applied to the current international order. The chapter assesses the espousers of balance of power and the responses to that argument. It explores into liberal and Marxist understandings of multipolar politics and the question of hegemony. Before investigating the balance of power, it is important to remember that the 'balance of power' is the very heart of Realist strategy in world politics. Traditional power-politics often predicts that military power soon follows economic power, and that very soon countries like Japan and Germany will return to the traditional power balancing game. What is disappointing is that advocates of multipolarity are fixated on the notion that the United States must become a balancer.
