Change, react, adapt
Politics is driven by fear. Within this context, political units act. Ever since men gathered and formed the first political groups, the fundamental logics and dynamics of politics have remained the same. Ages pass, powers arise and perish, empires come and go; however, due to either his circumstances or his nature, man cannot overcome its reality. While the actors are ephemeral; the core of the struggle for power stands before humanity, demonstrating the inherent and perpetual weakness of men.
How the rise of a new great power affects the international system in which this event takes place? What are the responses other great powers have toward the rising power? This questions will be analyzed in the context of the rise of Assyria within the international political system of the Middle East in the Late Bronze Age. The letters sent to the Egyptian Pharaoh by the Assyrian and the Babylonian kings will be used as a primary source to approach this subject.[1]
The rise of a new great power means a change in the relative distribution of power among all the political units in the system and, therefore, it results in the disruption of the former political status quo. Thus, the political units threatened in their power by the arisen power respond to the disruptive stimulus, trying to balance it and to reduce the possible risks and damages resulting from this political change. Meanwhile, the new great power follows a strategy of prestige and counter-balancing of the response of the other powers, in order to assert its newly achieved position and deter its rivals from engaging in an open conflict against it. This is the argument of this essay, which will be exemplified in the case of the rise of Assyria as a new great power during the Late Bronze Age.
[1] These will be quoted throughout this essay; nevertheless, at the end of it, there is a section (“annex”) where they are shown in completeness: ‘Regarding Assyrian Envoys,’ ‘Diplomatic Overture From Assyria,’ and ‘A Gift Such as This’.