Power (international)
In the context of international relations and diplomacy, power (sometimes clarified as international power, national power, or state power) is the ability of one state to influence or control other states. States with this ability are called powers, a term that is sometimes capitalized. Recently entities other than states has acquired the same ability to influence and control other states, most often these are multinational corporations with financial assets surpassing smaller states, but also organisations such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank show that they have international power.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Categories of powers 3 See also |
In the field of political theory, Niccolo Machiavelli theorised early and influentially on the mechanisms of gaining and retaining political power, publishing The Prince in 1513.
Power is usually defined as the ability to impose one's will on others, or to pursue one's goals at the expense of others' interests. Power can be exercised through violence or through coercion, the threat of force.
In Western thought, the power of a state is generally thought of in qualitative terms; however, in the current political thinking of the People's Republic of China, national power can be measured quantitatively using an index known as comprehensive national power.
State power is often divided into hard power (military power) and soft power (economic or cultural or persuasive power).
Political analysis often personifies nation states as powers, discussing superpowers, great powers, second-order powers and "European powers", for example, with convenient simplicity as manifestations of Realpolitik.
States have always had variable levels of powers and a number of terms have been developed to describe this continuum.
Theory
Categories of powers
See also