National Power and Capabilities of Nation

States

Concept of Power
 What is power?

• Power is understood by a number of words i.e. authority,

control, command, supremacy, rule and influence;
• There is inalienable relationship between state and power.
Because inter -state relationship is power-relation;
• Having studied international relations, power can be
perceived as an end and mean both towards fulfilling national
goals or interests of the state;
• The position of any state in the international arena is
determined by power; and
• Power can not be ignored that remains in the center of
international relations.
 Some Operational Definitions

• ‘ Power is an influence’.
Lass Well
• Power is an ability of one nation to determine the behaviors of others’.
Berrtrand Russel
• ‘It is a capacity to impose one’s will on others by reliance on effective
sanction in case of non-compliance’.
Schwarzeberger
• ‘Power is a psychological relationship between those who exercise it and
those whom is exercised’.
H.J. Morgenthau
• ‘It is the capacity to produce intended effects to realize one’s will’.
Duchacek
 National Power

• ‘National power is the sum total of the strength and

capabilities of state harnessed and applied to the
advancement of its national interests and the attainment of
its national objectives’.
Padleford and Lincoln
 ‘National power is more than the sum total of population, raw
material and quantitative factors, the flexibility of its
institutions, its technical know-how, its capacity to endure
privation, these are but a few quantitative elements that
determine the total strength of a nation’.
Ebenstein