Understanding Power in Global Politics

Power is the organising concept of global politics. At its simplest, power is the ability of an actor to shape outcomes and to influence the behaviour of others so that they do what they would otherwise not have done. Yet this simple definition hides enormous complexity, because power operates through many channels, rests on many resources, and is measured in many ways. A rigorous study of world politics begins by distinguishing the different faces and forms of power.

Power as capability and power as relationship

Two broad ways of thinking about power run through the discipline. The first treats power as capability: a stock of resources an actor possesses, such as territory, population, wealth, natural resources, technology, and armed forces. On this view a state is powerful if it has larg