Structural Balance in International Relations
For the longest of time, China was the only developed nation that had maintained diplomatic relations with North Korea. This put China in a position of great power as they were the only nation that had an understanding of what was going on in the nation and could work to negotiate peace in the region. However, recent events are changing the relationship between China and the DPRK. After the violent murder of Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Un’s uncle, as well as the continued illegal testing of nuclear weapons, China is beginning to reconsider its relationship with the DPRK. This changing of relationship status will have widespread impacts on international networks and from a graph theory perspective, could mean more peace in the region.
The current global sign graph is one that is structurally unbalanced, with positive relationships between China and the United States and between the DPRK and China, while the United States and the DPRK have negative relationships. This unstable configuration causes China to be in a position where they have to ‘pick’ between maintaining their relationship with the DPRK or the United States and is only bound to evolve towards a more balanced set-up.
By having China develop an antagonistic relationship with the DPRK, there will be balance in a networks perspective with the DPRK having antagonistic relations with both the US and China and thus both the US and China will have a common enemy to fight against.
The only negative to this set up is the idea that China is losing power into understanding the masked world of the DPRK as they were the only nation to have an understanding of what as going inside the nation due to their positive relationships. This means the DPRK will truly be a ‘black box’ to the rest of the world.
This is interesting as we can now see China and USA working together to put heavy pressure on the DPRK, which shows the structural balance that has formed with China now truly developing antagonistic relations with the DPRK. For better or for worse, at least the graph is now balanced.
Sources: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/08/24/kim-jong-un-killed-uncle-half-brother-over-china-coup-plot-report-says.html and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/19/us-and-china-agree-to-maximise-pressure-on-north-korea