AS.190.209 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Humanitarian Intervention, Totalitarianism, Tyrant
4 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Level of analysis problem in international politics idealism vs realism. Concept of power power is the capacity of a to make b do or prevent an action it otherwise would not do. More simply, power is the capacity to get what you want. Hard vs. soft power hard power is the power to coerce or force someone to do something. The size of a state"s population and the level of its wealth are the main building blocks of military power. Wealthy rivals with large populations can usually build formidable military forces. A state"s actual power is embedded mainly in its army and the air and naval forces that directly support it. Armies are the central ingredient of military power, because they are the principal instrument for conquering and controlling territory-the paramount political objective in a world of territorial states. Some of it is military power (troops, armaments/weapons, etc. ); countries can also draw on economic power (natural resources, industrialization/technology, etc.
