When states attempt to balance threats by an increase of their national capabilities, this is called internal balancing. Alternatively, when they try to balance against a prevailing threat by the establishment of informal or formal alliances with other states, this is known as external balancing (Grieco, 1997: 160).

Through internal and external efforts, a state can either increase its own capacity or impair that of its rival. While the former is called positive balancing, the latter is negative balancing (Steff and Khoo, 2014: 2227-228). One can make
another distinction between hard balancing and soft balancing. States use mainly their military and economic capacities in hard balancing, whereas soft balancing suggests the use of diplomatic and cultural means, which are the soft power resources (Fortmann, Paul and Wirtz, 2004: 362-365; Paul, 2004: 3; Pape, 2005: 9-10).