Hard Power

7 Key excerpts on "Hard Power"

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  Meta-Geopolitics of Outer Space

  An Analysis of Space Power, Security and Governance

  • N. Al-Rodhan(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  27 Writing at the end of the 1990s, he rightly predicted that the influence of space power would increase continuously. In the post-Cold War era, the non-military applications of space technologies have significantly increased in performance. Space power today goes beyond traditional military, security and economic applications and comprises many potential opportunities in civilian and commercial domains. Space Power and Meta-Geopolitics 23 I would therefore argue that any conceptualization of space power needs to take into account its multidimensional nature. In other words, space power not only includes all of the Hard Power tools, usually referred to as military and economic might, but also soft power tools, that is, the ability of a country to ‘obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries want to follow it, admiring its values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness’. 28 Several theorists have previously highlighted the many dimensions of state power. For example, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Mahan established a list of six factors that influence a nation’s sea power: geographical position, physical conformation, extent of terri- tory, size of the population, character of the people and character of the government. 29 More recently, it has been argued that similar consid- erations are applicable to space, and that space theory should draw on these and similar factors. For instance, USAF Lieutenant Colonel Martin E. B. France argues that at least three of these dimensions – geography and the character of the population and of the government – play a major role as regards space power. 30 Geographical position is crucial for the launch of a satellite because proximity to the equator allows the satellite to be boosted eastwards, and a large area of uninhabited territory around the launch site ensures that the population is not affected by accidents, debris, and so on.

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  India's Soft Power

  A New Foreign Policy Strategy

  • Patryk Kugiel(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  States required other instruments and policies to realise national objectives as “the use of military force became simply more costly for modern great powers than it had been in earlier centuries” (Nye, 2004: p.15). In fact, the majority of contemporary wars have been internal conflicts, and there is less tolerance for solving international disputes through military force. In a new, more interdependent world, Hard Power policies are less legitimate – and thereby less effective – in attaining national objectives. In Nye’s (2004b: p.69) words: “Traditionally the test of a great power was its strength in war. Today, however, the definition of power is losing its emphasis on military force and conquest that marked earlier eras. The factors of technology, education, and economic growth are becoming more significant in international power, while geography, population, and raw materials are becoming somewhat less important.” Moreover, fast technological development in the 20 th century caused power to pass from the “capital-rich” to the “information-rich”. Consequently, more attention now is granted to instruments based on cooperation, attractiveness and persuasion. Soft Power and its Criticism Soft power, along with military and economic power, determines the ability of states to exert influence in foreign relations and realise their national interests. According to the most common definition, soft power “is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments” (Nye, 2004a: X). In the narrowest sense, it is seen as equal to the cultural attractiveness of a country. In a broader perspective, it encompasses everything except military capabilities. In practice, a country’s soft power or “power of attraction”, “co-optive power” stands for its legitimacy, reputation, international credibility, etc. The term soft power was first coined and popularised by Harvard professor Joseph Nye Jr

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  The Maritime Dimension of European Security

  Seapower and the European Union

  • B. Germond(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  2 The (Critical) Geopolitics of Seapower Seapower and geography

  Geography is an important determinant of international politics and security. Human and states’ agency is inevitably limited by geographical constraints. Some scholars have claimed that geography constitutes one of the factors influencing the development of seapower. For example, Colin S. Gray stressed that the capacity of the US to exercise its power abroad derives ‘inexorably from the enduring facts of physical, political, and strategic geography’ (Gray, 1994: 165). Michael S. Lindberg emphasises the role of geography ‘to determine a state’s relationship with the sea, its maritime importance, its vulnerability to threats emanating from seaward and its need for naval power’ (Lindberg, 1998: 38). According to Jakub Grygiel, ‘geography, from geological factors such as the layout of a coastline to more ephemeral characteristics such as geography-influenced strategic culture, shapes the ability of a state to develop a navy and to wield seapower’ (Grygiel, 2012: 35). Here, the influence of Mahan’s writings seems evident; three of the six ‘elements of seapower’ he defined in his Influence of Seapower have directly to do with geography or geopolitics (i.e. geographical position, physical conformation, extent of territory), and two others with geography-informed ideational dispositions (i.e. national character, character of governments) (Mahan, 2007: 29–81). This could lead us to believe that Mahan was deterministic in his account of geography. However, Jon Sumida claimed that this interpretation results from a superficial reading of Mahan’s extensive work and demonstrated that ‘Mahan’s main concern in the Influence of Sea Power series was the critical importance of decision making by statesmen and admirals, not the power of geographical factors to determine the course of history’ (Sumida, 1999: 57). Actually, one has to be very careful when discussing the influence of geography upon seapower. Geography does constrain seapower to some extent, but ultimately political decisions, the broader economic context, as well as non-geographical structural, systemic, and ideational factors are important, if not major, determinants of seapower. That said, three types of geographical factors influence seapower to some extent: geological and physical geography factors, geopolitical and human geography factors, and geography-informed ideational factors (Table 2.1

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  The US-Japan Alliance

  Balancing Soft and Hard Power in East Asia

  • David Arase, Tsuneo Akaha(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  23 In other words, there is no agreed formula for soft power. Why this is so is discussed later.

  Nye believes that Hard Power and soft power are distinct from one another, and that one does not require the other. Nye states: “Sometimes countries enjoy political clout that is greater than their military and economic weight would suggest because they define their national interest to include attractive causes such as economic aid or peacekeeping.”24 Not everyone agrees. Samuel Huntington asserts that Hard Power is the prerequisite or foundation of soft power. For him, culture and ideology become attractive “when they are seen as rooted in material success and influence.”25

  It is too simple to say that soft and Hard Power are categorically different, or that causality only runs in one direction from soft to hard, or hard to soft power. Today, US soft power is related to its retention of strategically located military bases. Osama bin Laden uses a cultural legacy of Islam to create Hard Power. Hitler used a Nazi vision of German culture to create an incredibly powerful war machine. Though Huntington may be right that Hard Power can create soft power, it is also apparent that the soft power of ideas and values rooted in culture can create and sustain Hard Power. In other words, though the two are not interchangeable, there is a degree of fungibility between soft and Hard Power. The philosopher Bertrand Russell dealt with the complexity of power and its causes by conceiving of power as varied and transmutable in form, but of the same essence:

  Like energy, power has many forms, such as wealth, armaments, civil authority, and influence on opinion. No one of these can be regarded as subordinate to any other.… Wealth may result from military power or from influence over opinion, just as either of these may result from wealth.26

  The puzzle of soft power

  Soft power is the ability to get another to do something without using threats or blandishments. But the realist and liberal models of international relations do not explain how such power can exist. There is nothing in the realist model to explain why one actor would obey another if there is no fear or selfish material desire in play. The liberal institutionalist model also cannot satisfactorily explain soft power because ultimately, actors engage only in utility maximizing behavior regardless of whether the behavior is governed by specific or diffuse reciprocity. Soft power is supposed to be rooted in irrational affective factors.

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  Power and Policy

  Lessons for Leaders in Government and Business

  • Wesley B. Truitt(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  5 For the first decade of the 21st century, the world was at war more than 90 percent of the time. To better assess states’ power, it is critical to begin with an under- standing of the material bases of state power. At the same time it must be recognized that power is not immutable; it can change in quantity and/or quality and at times very quickly. Both factors may change, and over time they certainly do. China, for example, was not a great power in 1975; by 2000 it was. There is no fixed stock of power in the world. If there were, whenever one state gains power it must be at the expense of another, as in a zero sum game. Not only is the stock of power dynamic, but the nature and composition of the elements of power change over time. Technological advancements are the most decisive change elements. One type of power may diminish in importance when another is created. Leaders’ ability to capitalize on those changes and employ new components of power is a key variable in the effectiveness of power’s use. 16 Power and Policy For convenience of discussion, this chapter is divided into discrete sources and types of power, but no one type is ever decisive nor can any one source be considered paramount. All are involved at once. GEOPOLITICAL SOURCES OF STATES’ POWER Geography is the most basic power source of a nation’s strategy for its interactions in international relations. Geopolitics, or political geo- graphy, is the study that relates the physical environment to politics, particu- larly to the state. In his day, Napoleon believed the foreign policy of all states was based on their geography. 6 A country’s size, location, topogra- phy, natural resources, and distance from other states all affect the range of choices available to its statesmen. No one geographic feature pre- dominates over others, and geographic influences are seldom entirely deter- mining.

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  Geopolitics, Geography and Strategic History

  • Geoffrey Sloan(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  In the final analysis, the relationship between geography and strategy is a complex one. The strategic thinker must ensure that the geographical structure of the field in which military power is exercised remains as favourable as possible while ensuring that enemies, potential or otherwise, are disadvantaged with respect to the geography in which they must operate. Gooch acknowledged this by citing Britain’s historical experience:

  while geography was fixed, strategic geography was not. British strategy makers faced many difficulties in that the significance, value, and strategic vulnerability or defensibility of particular parts of the globe varied depending on political configuration and the level of sophistication of local communications.93

  Though the technology may lead to a reassessment of the significance of a particular location, the security of communities, city states, nation states and empires is dependent on geography, or more specifically the scope and configuration of a field of military action. According to Gray: ‘Each geographically tailored form of military power contributes to the course and outcome of the war in the super-currency of strategic effect . This idea shapes the treatment of “the grammar of strategy” across all distinctive geographical environments of conflict.’94

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  The SAGE Handbook of Political Geography

  • Kevin R Cox, Murray Low, Jennifer Robinson, Kevin R Cox, Murray Low, Jennifer Robinson(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  As we have seen, individ-ual political geographers have typically discussed at most one or two forms of power, insofar as they have discussed the nature of power at all. Most commonly in political geography power has been defined as domination or coercion (these are GEOGRAPHIES OF SPACE AND POWER 69 often considered to be the same thing). Less often power has been considered in terms of negotiation, manipulation or inducement, though again without clear distinctions being made between these. On the other hand, while explicit discussions of power in political geography have not covered the full range of modalities of power identified by Allen, in practice much political-geographic research has shown how these various forms of power operate geographically. Specific practices can involve more than one modality of power. Allen stresses that there is no rigid separation between different forms, and these can co-exist in place. For example, the ongoing US-led war in Iraq involved power in numerous guises – not just coercion, but also manipulation, inducement, persuasion, domination and so on. One of the great strengths of Allen’s approach is that it allows subtle distinctions to be made between the ways in which power is exercised, without ignoring ‘stronger’ forms of power such as domination and coercion. POWER, SPACE AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY What are the implications for political geography of thinking power in a fully spatialized way, and giv-ing full weight to its multiple modalities? World events at the beginning of the twenty-first cen-tury have undoubtedly prompted renewed interest in the exercise of political power.

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