In the 1980s, the realist academic Stephen Walt, nowadays at the Harvard Kennedy School, formulated the “balance of threat” hypothesis of world affairs. Illustration: YushaIt said that states tend to form alliances to counter countries that are simultaneously mighty and hostile. At the time, Walt’s insight addressed a shortcoming in conventional wisdom, which stipulated that a balance of power was the default tendency in world politics. To countries from Canada to Denmark and South Korea, the US looked powerful, but protective, rather than threatening. The world, after trying in vain to placate its predatory hegemon, now seems to have started the hard work of rebalancing.

Source: Taipei Times January 25, 2026 17:33 UTC