Balance of Power and Strategic Relations between China and the United States

The theory of balance of power is one of the most important theories on structuring international politics. The "status'" and "role" of great powers in establishing, sustaining and even shaking order in international social life have been brought into attention by different theories including the theory of power transition and balance of power. The theory of balance of power claims that current models in the international politics are shaped based on the logic of balancing. Increase in power shapes strategic actions made by major international actors leading to stability and change in the international system. As a result, the factor of "rising power" finds an important role in research projects. Under current international circumstances, China's "rising power" is considered the most important topic in the international politics. China's rising power is directly linked with the international US positioning and role making their strategic relations intertwined. Therefore, strategic interactions between China and the United States have become increasingly a key question within the international politics, which is stability and change in structuring international politics. This article addresses relations between these two powers in the post-cold war era. The author believes that the conceptual framework of the balance of power, as presented and developed by K. Waltz and J. Mearshiemer, is the most powerful in explaining strategic interactions between the two countries. For this reason, the author discusses the methods of US balancing against China and Chinese balancing against the US on that basis.