Power politics
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2008-07-03T01:57:34Z
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'''Power politics''', or '''Machtpolitik''' (borrowed from [[German language|German]]), is a state of [[international relations]] in which [[sovereignty|sovereign]]s protect their own interests by threatening one another with [[military]], [[economic]], or [[political]] aggression. The term was coined in [[Martin Wright]]'s 1979 book of the same name, which the [[Times Literary Supplement]] dubbed the 21st most influential book since [[World War II]].[http://www.listsofbests.com/list/28419]
Power politics is essentially a way of understanding the world of international relations: nations compete for the world's resources and it is to a nation's advantage to be manifestly able to harm others. It prioritizes national self-interest over the interest of other nations or the [[international community]].
Techniques of power politics include, but are not limited to, conspicuous [[nuclear warfare|nuclear]] development, [[pre-emptive strike]], [[blackmail]], the massing of military units on a border, the imposition of [[tariff]]s or [[economic sanction]]s, [[bait and bleed]] and bloodletting, [[balancing|hard]] and [[soft balancing]], [[buck passing]], [[covert operation]]s, and [[asymmetric warfare]].
==See also==
* [[Realism (international relations)|Realism]]
* [[Realpolitik]]
==Literature==
* [[Hans J. Morgenthau]], ''Scientific Man vs. Power Politics''. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1946.
* [[Hans J. Morgenthau]], ''Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace''. New York NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948.
*[[Hans Köchler]], "The United Nations Organization and Global Power POlitics: The Antagonism between Power and Law and the Future of World Order," in: ''Chinese Journal of International Law'', Vol. 5, No. 2 (2006), pp. 323-340. [http://chinesejil.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/5/2/323 ABSTRACT]
==External links==
*[http://blog.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/drg/ Global Power Barometer]
{{International power}}
[[Category:Political terms]]
[[Category:Political realism]]