Prussia fundamentally changed the balance of power and politics in nineteenth-century Europe by justifying its expansion in a way that prevented a balancing coalition from forming: it signaled constraint, laid rhetorical traps, and demonstrated a need to secure its identity in international politics—arguments that none of the great powers could legitimately counter. Similarly, China has carefully framed its foreign policy strategy in a way that has prevented balancing against it thus far. The United States, on the other hand, only halfheartedly tried to justify the war in Iraq, which dramatically increased the cost of fighting the war. Legitimation theory, then, helps to explain why states fail to balance in seemingly predictable ways.

Stacie Goddard and Jeremy Pressman respond to Ron Hassner's Winter 2006/07 International Security article, "The Path to Intractability: Time and the Entrenchment of Territorial Disputes."

The usefulness of offense-defense theory is the subject of our correspondence section.