Nature of Power
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Realism is also called the Power
Paradigm
What makes a state powerful?
Tangible and Intangible factors
Why does a state need power?
Int System as anarchic/decentralized
No central authority/No SuperLeviathan
A Hobbesian International State of
Political Theorists on Power
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Nicolo Machiavelli/The Prince
How to attain and keep power
“It is better to be feared than loved.”
Hobbes: “Man is a wolf to other
men.”
Hans Mongenthau/Politics among
Nations
“Man has a will to power.”
The acquisition of power is instinctual
Joseph Nye/Hard versus Soft power
Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469-1527
Machiavelli
• Bertrand Russell called The Prince, “a
handbook for gangsters”
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Nobel Prize for Literature 1950
• Mussolini called it, “vade mecum for
statesman”
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Pocket Reference
Ally of Adolf Hitler
• Napoleon referred to The Prince as, “the only
book worth reading.”
Dangers of Acquiring Power
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Spiral of Insecurity/Arms Races
20,000 Nuclear Weapons/Carl Sagan
Cost/Expense/Wastefulness
Breakup of the Soviet Union
Having power increases temptation to
Use
Boys with Toys
Stealth Bomber Panamanian
Invasion, 1989 Cost $800m
Multi-dimensional aspects of Power
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Geo-political factors
Location, Size, Topography, Climate
Population
Population Pyramids/National SelfImage
Infrastructure/Extractive Capability
(Bolivia)
Financial Position (Kuwaiti Gold)
Natural Resources (Titanium)
National Military
Level of Military Spending,
Quality/Quantity, Leadership, Moral
Location: Battleship Britain
Size: Retreat/Scorched Earth
Israel and Retreat?: 23 km wide
Topography: Poland
Topography: Switzerland
Climate: Russian Winter defeats
Napolean and Nazi armies
Vietnamese Rain + US Tank =
Population Pyramid: India
Population Pyramid: Japan
Population Square: China
Infrastructure: Japan
….or not!
Natural Strategic Resources:
South Africa and Titanium
Kuwaiti Gold + Saadam Hussein
Quality versus Quantity
US F-16 or Russian MIG-21?
1979 Iranian Revolution: Ayatollah
Khomeini and theocracy
Human Waves: Iran’s Brilliant
Military Strategy against Iraq 1980s
Power as…..
Dynamic
Power Cycle Theory/Hegemonic Decline
 Relative
Italy to a Third World Country/not in G8
 Situational (US versus Vietnam)
Boulding’s Loss of Strength Gradient
Lack of will to fight/US 1 year military
tour
Bakunin’s Instinct for
Freedom/Territoriality
*Multi-dimensional (Both tangible and
intangible)
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Power as Situtational
“Measuring Power”
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Extremely complex/Difficult to measure
Power both tangible/intangible factors
Nye’s Hard vs Soft power
What is the best way to measure power?
Size of Army? Military Spending?
Level of Education?
Economic GNP?
Other Measures?
China’s “Hard” and “Soft” power
China submits oceanic
claims to United Nations
By By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN |
Associated Press – Fri, Dec 14, 2012
BEIJING (AP) — China provided the
United Nations with detailed claims to
waters in the East China Sea on
Friday, apparently padding out its
legal argument in an ongoing
territorial dispute with Japan.
The Foreign Ministry said it submitted
documents claiming waters extending
beyond its 200-nautical-mile (370kilometer) exclusive economic zone.
It said geological features dictated
that China's claim extended to the
edge of the continental shelf off the
Chinese coast, about 200 kilometers
(124 miles) from Japan's Okinawa
island.