Diplomatic practice and representations of the European balance: the 1725 Ripperda Treaty

In this conference paper, redrafted to a full article, I treat the discursive power of the "Balance of Power"-principle in the "thirty years of peace" following the Peace of Utrecht (1713). Starting from the criticism formulated by Heinz Duchhardt (Univ. Mainz) on the relative absence of the concrete wordings in treaties, I take the Ripperda Treaty (May 1725) between Emperor Charles VI and king Philip V of Spain as an example of inverse normative power. Even though the agreement clearly violated the Utrecht system and was quickly condemned as such by the other European players, the drafters tried to present the situation as if they were actually adhering to it