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Power
Sun Tzu: “If you believe in
freedom and peace, you must
study the mechanisms of
oppression and war.” (The Art of
War, China: 500 B.C.)
Power is Normative
Realist: Power is a tool used for good or
ill.
 Lord Acton (Liberal): “Power corrupts,
absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
 Marxist: private property, class, and
exploitation create power. Politics is
only the result

Power as a unit of analysis?
Power as measuring unit? (as in $)
 Power cannot be isolated from other factors
(ceteris paribus)
 Power is contextual
 Power is both tangible and intangible
 Power is multidirectional
 Power is relational
 Power is dynamic

Three aspects of power
As an exercise of influence
 As a relationship (incl. action, purpose, and
value)
 As a resource

As exercise of influence
Actor and event specific (e.g.,Vietnam war,
Landmine Treaty)
 A dynamic continuum:
communication/travel/trade-persuasion/diplomacy--constraint/threats-condemnation/sanction--coercion/limited
force--war.

Relationship: Mixture of Action,
Purpose, Value
Power as means vs. end
 Power as perception (psych. Environment:
e.g., Pearl Harbor)
 Uni vs. multidirectional (e.g.,Kosovo Crisis
and Russia)
 Trade-offs, linkages (Canada-US relations),
unintended consequences (Kosovo today)
 Zero-sum and positive-sum (relational and
structural)

As a resource
Geopolitics: location, mil. force and
alliances. (e.g., Landpower {H. Mackinder}
vs Seapower {A. Mahan} strategies)
 Mil. Force: size, training, equipment, power
projection, modernity (e.g., C4SRI, OEW,
PGM,)
 Economic base: resources, infrastructure,
skilled labour, R&D, degree of GDP
dependent on trade, financial vulnerability

Resource (cont’d)
Demographics, ideology, national unity
 Political system (open vs closed),
parliamentary vs. US separation of powers
 Role of international organizations
 Information (e. g., CNN effect) and
perception

Marxism and ‘Power’ in IP
Economic inequality not anarchy is the
problem
 Bourgeois Western states vs
underdeveloped world
 Colonialism--imperialism--neo-imperialism
 Dependency theory: how underdevelopment
continues
 Solution: revolution, Intra-Bourgeois
conflict, new terms of trade.

Conclusion
Power connected to normative purpose
 Imprecise unit of measurement
 Not abstract, but always context specific.
