美国霸权与欧盟自主防务——对制衡论解释的批评与思考

American Hegemony and European Independent Defense: Critique on the Balancing Theory Explanation

当前,欧盟正在努力追求和发展独立自主的防务力量,对于这一现象,现有国际关系理论提供了一些竞争性的假说和解释。在现实主义内部,存在着制衡论与联盟困境两种解释,本文对制衡论的观点进行了评估,认为欧洲发展自主防务并不能构成严格意义上对霸权的制衡行为,制衡论的观点扩大了均势理论中的概念,对于理解和维护这一理论具有消极意义。从一般意义来看,我们应该避免对国际关系理论概念的任意扩展,对国家行为采取更合理的分类标准,在此基础上确定各种行为得以实现的条件。

In recent years, the European Union has been pursuing and developing an independent defense. Different theories of international relations have presented us with competing hypotheses and explanations on this phenomenon. This paper concentrates on the balancing explanation, and argues that the development of European independent defense is not strictly a balancing act against American hegemony. Broadly speaking, we should avoid stretching the concepts of IR theory, and should make a more reasonable classification of the behavior of the states.