This presentation explains the theory of structural balance with the help of a case study of the separation of Bangladesh separation.

1. STRUCTURAL THEORY OF BALANCE
WITH RESPECT TO CASE STUDY OF
SEPARATION OF BANGLADESH 1972
Presented by:
Mehreen Ayub
Shayan Sardar

2. Introduction
 The structural Balance Theory was originated in social
psychology in the mid-20th-century, by Heider in the 1940s
 Graph-theoretic approach by Cartwright and Harary in the
1960s considers the possible ways in which triangles on
three individuals can be signed.
 Suppose we have a social network on a set of people, in
whicheveryone knows everyone else — so we have an edge
joining each pair of nodes.
 Such a network is called a clique, or a complete graph. We
then label each edge with either + or −;
 a + label indicates that its two endpoints are friends, while
a − label indicates that its two endpoints are enemies.

3. Continue…
 Note that since there’s an edge connecting each pair,
we are assuming that each pair of people are either
friends or enemies — no two people are indifferent to
one another, or unaware of each other.
 Thus, the model makes the most sense for a group of
people small enough to have this level of mutual
awareness (e.g. a classroom, a small company, a sports
team, a fraternity or sorority), or for a setting such as
international relations, in which the nodes are
countries and every country has an official diplomatic
position toward every other

4. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND
STRUCTURAL BALANCE THEORY
 International politics represents a setting in which it is
natural to assume that a collection of nodes all have
opinions (positive or negative) about one another —
here the nodes are nations, and + and − labels indicate
alliances or animosity.
 Research in political science has shown that structural
balance can sometimes provide an effective
explanation for the behavior of nations during various
international crises

5. MODELS OF OF STRUCTURAL
BALANCE IN IR

6. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Rules of Structural Balance
 Sentiments are an important special case of attitudes that are
positive or negative cognitive orientations of some strength.
 Positive interpersonal sentiments and their relational correlates
(sustained contact, reciprocity, trust, and influence) are the
essential bases of small primary groups, and they form the
backbone of larger social structures.
 The scope condition of balance theory is a group in which all
individuals have a positive or negative orientation of some
strength toward every other member of the group.
 Balance theory relaxes the assumption of all-positive sentiments,
and, in so doing, it allows the simultaneous existence of social
cohesion and social conflict, that is, the ubiquitous duality that
has stimulated the development of sociological theory since the
inception of the discipline (Durkheim [1893)

7. Continue..
 In the literature on balance theory, it is the structural form
of a triad— that is, its configuration of positive and
negative relations among three individuals that determines
whether the triad microstructure is balanced.
 The existence of a negative sentiment in the triad does not
automatically define it as unbalanced. In turn, a balanced
macrostructure may contain numerous triads in which
there is one or more negative sentiments.
 It is the configuration of positive and negative sentiments
in the microstructures of triads and in the macrostructure
containing the triads that determines whether the network
as a whole is in a state of structural balance

8. A and B are friends with a mutual
enemy
 Lets look at 3 people => 4 cases
 See if all are equally possible (local property)
Structural Balance
 Case (a): 3 +
 Case (b): 2 +, 1 –
 A is friend with B and C, but B and C do not get well
togetherMutual friends
 Case (c): 1 +, 2 –
 Case (d): 3 –
 Mutual enemies
 A and B are friends with a mutual enemy

9. Structural Balance
Case (a): 3 + Case (b): 2 +, 1 -
Stable or balanced
 UnstableA is friend with B and C, but B and C do not get well together
 Implicit force to make B and C friends (- => +) or turn one of the + to –
 Mutual friends
 “the friend of my friend is my friend,”
 Case (c): 1 +, 2 –
 Case (d): 3 -Stable or balancedUnstable
 A and B are friends with a mutual enemy
 “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”
 Mutual enemies
 Forces to team up against the third (turn 1 – to +)

10. The Structure of Balanced
Networks
 Balance Theorem:
 If a labeled complete graph is balanced , all pairs of
nodes are friends, or the nodes can be divided into two
groups X and Y, such that every pair of nodes in X like
each other, every pair of nodes in Y like each other, and
every one in X is the enemy of every one in Y.
 From a local to a global property

11. Case Study
Separation of Bangladesh
 The conflict over Bangladesh’s separation from
Pakistan in 1972, explicitly invokes structural balance
theory if we notice the negative and positive
relationships of global actors involved:
 USSR - N. Vietnam-
 Pakistan + USA
 China - India
Note: The positive and negative sings show alliance and
animosity.

13. continue
 The model of triad rests upon the main global actors
involved in conflict
 The United States' somewhat surprising support of
Pakistan becomes less surprising in 70’s when one
considers that the USSR was China’s enemy, China was
India’s foe, and India had traditionally bad relations
with Pakistan.
 Since the U.S. was at that time improving its relations
with China, it supported the enemies of China’s
enemies.

14. Conclusion
Further reverberations of this strange political
constellation became inevitable:
 North Vietnam made friendly gestures toward India,
Pakistan severed diplomatic relations with those
countries of the Eastern Bloc which recognized
Bangladesh, and China vetoed the acceptance of
Bangladesh into the U.N.
 So these negative and positive sentiments among
states created disturbance and mistrust between east
and west Pakistan owing to the birth of new state
Bangladesh.