NEW353H1 Lecture Notes - Fungibility, Infant Mortality, Hard Power
Document Summary
Morgenthau (author/theorist): man"s control over the minds and actions of another man. A gets b to do something s/he wouldn"t do otherwise. Factors that are commonly associated with power: tanks, military expenditure, military personnel, gdp, steel production, education, infant mortality, rate of tax collection, corruption. Many hard to measure dimensions: morale, intelligence, quality of diplomacy, determination. Stalin quote about the pope"s lack of power: the pope! He was measuring power in terms of military. In reality, if we understand power as the ability to affect other"s behavior, the pope is powerful even if he doesn"t have a military. Which areas of power do we give weight to? (area, population, gnp, military. Power is dynamic - power is not stable. No one thing that makes countries powerful. We can"t know how much power you have unless we compare you to another actor. The definition of power itself is relational: our ability to affect the actions of another.
