Hans Morgenthau The Struggle for Power and Peace, Fifth Edition Morgenthau describes political power as a 'means

to the nations ends', he says international politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power and that power is always the immediate aim. Morgenthau also says that whenever people strive to realize their goal by means of international relations, they do so by striving for power. Morgenthau says that that two conclusions follow from this point: first, not every action that a nation proforms with respect to another nation is of a political nature. Many such activities are normally undertaken without any such consideration. Examples of this are legal, economic humanitarian and cultural activities. Second, not all nations are at all times to the same extent involved in international politics. The degree to their involvement may run all the way from the maximum at present attained by the U.S, through the minimum involvement of such countries as Switzerland. The players for power change with the shifting circumstances of power, and these circumstances may push certain nations to the forefront of the power struggle.

Morgenthau says that the nature of power is mans control over the minds and actions of other men. He states by political power we refer to the mutual relations of control among the holders of public authority and between the latter and the people at large. Morgenthau also describes political power as a psychological relation between those who exercise it and those whom it is exercised. He states that in view of this definition, four distinctions must made: between power and influence, between usable and unusable power, between power and force and between legitimate power and illegitimate power. Morgenthau states that the political objective of war itself is not to persue the conquest of territory and the annihilation of enemy armies, but a change in the mind of the enemy which will make him yield to the will of the victor.

Morgenthau states that the aspiration for power is the distinguishing element of international politics. In recent times the conviction that the struggle for power can be eliminated from the international scene has been connected with the attempts at organizing the world. Examples of this are the League of Nations and the United Nations.

It was thought that the international organization would mean the end of political power and usher in a new era of international collaboration. Morgenthau says that it is sufficient to state that the struggle for power is universal and is an undeniable fact of experience. Morgenthau also states that the whole political life of a nation, from the local to the national level, is a continuous struggle for power.