POLI 244 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Nuclear Proliferation, Nuclear Arms Race, Andor Technology
7 Oct 2017
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Document Summary
We have been talking about power a lot in this class, especially when we looked at realism as a theoretical approach to international relations. When we talked about power in the context of realism, fernando mentioned that realists basically conceive of power in terms of hard power, in terms of military or at least economic power, which can be turned into military capabilities. It refers to the kinds of resources that this power relies on. What are the things that make you powerful, vis-a-vis another actor. The strategic functions of military force: defense, deterrence, compellence, swaggering , the defensive use of force. Purpose: dissuade an adversary from attacking, minimize damage if attacked. Means: adversary"s victory is made less likely and more costly. The purpose here is to dissuade an adversary from attacking you. A typical example would be to build a fortress to protect yourself. The idea here, is to minimize the damage if an attack happens.
