Power Potential

• There are three sources of power potential

  • Natural power potential (eg. natural resources, population)

  • Tangible power potential (eg. industrial development, level of infrastructure)

  • Intangible power potential (eg. public support, quality of leadership)

• There are three types of exercisable power

  • Hard power: a state’s exploitation of various sources of power to coerce other states into adopting actions in its interest

    • eg. military strength, because it’s a clear powerful intimidation technique in the international sphere

  • Soft power: a state’s attempt to persuade other actors to do things it wants based on the legitimacy of its own actions, views, or policies

    • eg. international cooperation to solve a collective problem such as climate change, which may influence other states to follow suit

  • Smart power is a combination of hard and soft power

    • eg. in 2009, Russia cut natural gas through Ukraine due to a dispute, which caused the gas not to reach Italy in the winter, resulting in widespread shortages. This, somewhat indirectly, gives Russia power over Italy.

Tools of Economic Statecraft

Engagement

• Seeks to positively influence State B through rewarding it for doing something in State A’s interest

• eg. industrial states placing lower tariff rates on imports from developing countries in an attempt to promote the developing countries’ economic development

  • Because of the positive association the developing countries may then form with the industrial states, the developing countries may then be more inclined to give favorable trade conditions to industrial states in the future

Sanctions

• Punishing State B for not acting in State A’s interest

• eg. the United States freezing Iranian assets in the US in response to Iran taking American hostages

  • This illustrates the idea of sanctions because the United States sought leverage to punish Iran and coerce them into returning the hostages, rather than offering a reward for releasing them

Challenges to the State

• Five types:

  • Transnational religious movements

  • Transnational ideological movements

  • Ethnonational movements

    • All movements for increased independence and sovereignty of a certain nation/ethnic group from a certain state

    • Can create division within a state and put pressure on the state’s government to act a certain way regardless of whether that’s optimal for the general population, or negative for the nation or ethnic group

    • eg. China has a history of oppressing ethnic and religious minorities, leading to many of them petitioning the Chinese government for increased sovereignty and protections under the law

      • This has created division within Chinese politics and oppression of these groups by the Chinese government has largely continued

  • Transnational crime

  • Fragile states

    • States which demonstrate an inability to exercise a monopoly on the legitimate use of force within their territory, to make collective decisions because of the erosion of legitimate authority, to interact with other states in the international system, and/or to provide public services

    • These states do not hold enough power to meaningfully influence their populations, and the governments are often subject to coercion or complete takeover by interest or terrorist groups

    • eg. Yemen, where a civil war is taking place and there are humanitarian crises due to a lack of food and water

      • What’s left of the Yemenite government has had little success in mitigating either conflict, and is highly susceptible to outside influence/coercion