Shifts in the Economic Balance of Power

The ability of the world's emerging nations to contend with the economies of the industrialized world for power, resources, influence, etc., is a change or shift in the economic balance of power from previous decades. Balance of power theory holds that the states that are members of the global economy can either engage in balancing or bandwagoning behavior. An emerging nation might side with the United States or other industrialized nations in adopting standards that reduce greenhouse emissions that contribute to global warming (bandwagoning) or could join with other emerging nations in ignoring the leadership of the United States (balancing). The significance of an emerging nation's possible decision to change the impact of the effectiveness of environmental controls represents an important shift in the balance of economic power.