CONSTRUCTING POWER AND SECURITY

IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

MÁTÉ SZALAI

18.09.2014.

WHAT IS POWER? WHAT IS SECURITY? WHY AM I ASKING THAT?

• The notions of power and security are basic tools to analyze international relations and small states as well, though we never really established a proper, practical definition

• That is what we attempt to do today

1. POWER

1. POWER„Most definitions of politics involve power. Most international interactions are political or have ramifications for politics. Thus, it is not surprising that power has been prominent in discussions of international interaction from Thucydides to the present day”

Baldwin

„Defining power is one of the most profound and most controversial question in political science”Morgenthau

„For a concept that is so widely used, “power” is surprisingly elusive and difficult to measure.”

Nye

WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF POWER?

Resource-

based

RelationalPOWER

1.1. RESOURCE-BASED DEFINITION

• every state has material resources in terms of area, population, natural resources, etc.

• the overall sum of these resources determines the state’s power

• power is like money in economy: measurable, disposable and determine the actors room to manoeuvre

• power is a quantitative concept which is available at any time, any situation regarding any actor

1.1. RESOURCE-BASED DEFINITION

„In the 1930s international relations textbooks ranked the great powers in terms of their possession of land and endowments of key natural resources: oil, iron ore, coal, bauxite, copper, tungsten, and manganese. Analysts presumed that the state with the largest stock of raw materials would prevail. CIA estimates of the strategic importance of various regions during the cold war were based on similar assumptions.”

Rosecrance, 1996

1.1. RAY CLINE’S DEFINITION

PopulationTerritoryEconomyMilitary

StrategyWill Power

1.2. RELATIONAL POWER

• Harold Lasswell, Abraham Kaplan (1965): Power and Society: A Framework for Political Inquiry

• ‚A’ has power over ‚B’ if can change its behavior by his behavior

• Power can only be defined in a social context

• Power can only de described if we can identify• Scope

• Target

• Means

1.2. THE THREE FACES OF POWER

Coersion Agenda-setting/Framing Attraction

Robert A. Dahl (1957): The Concept of Power. (Behavioral

Science)

Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz (1963): Decisions and Nondecisions: An Analytical

Framework. (APSR)

Steven Lukes (1974) Power: A Radical View.

The ability to get others to act in ways that are contrary to their initial preferences and

strategies

Constructing or effecting the framework in which the

discussion about a specific problem is conducted.

The ability to shape the ideas and beliefs which effect others’

initial preferences.

1.3. HARD AND SOFT: MEANS OF USING POWER • Joseph S. Nye Jr. (1990): Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power

• Soft Power: „soft power is the ability to affect others through the co-optive means of framing the agenda, persuading, and eliciting positive attraction in order to obtain preferred outcomes.”

• The resource does not determine the way you use it

CONCEPTUALIZING POWER

Coercion

Agenda-setting/Framing

Attraction

Hard power

Soft power

2. SECURITY

2.1. DEFINITION OF SECURITY (3)

• The state of being free from danger or threat

• Procedures followed or measures taken to ensure the safety of a state

• The state of feeling safe, stable, and free from fear

2.2. „EXTENDED SECURITY” (EMMA ROTHCHILD, 2007)

1. Whose security?

2. What type of security?

3. Who is responsible for

security?

2.2. FIVE SECTORS OF SECURITY (BARRY BUZAN)

• Military• Economic• Political• Environmental• Societal

(Physichal body of the state)

(Welfare, revenues, stability)

(Institutions, basic values and interests)

(Natural environment, public health)

(Identity)

2.3. THE SECURITY OF SMALL STATES