Balance of Power: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century. Edited by T. V. Paul, James J. Wirtz, and Michel Fortmann. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. 400p. $70.00 cloth, $27.95 paper.

The end of the Cold War and the advent of the post–9/11 era altered the strategic context of international relations irrevocably. In the wake of these changes, it is useful to reexamine our traditional theoretical understandings of the system in order to determine the direction international relations scholarship should take. While theory should evolve independently from the empirical realities of world politics, periodically taking stock of where we are and where we should go is extremely helpful. This book is a welcome collection that takes on that task.