Aristotle said that man is a political animal, he likes to live in a community in order to rule and be ruled. The authority to rule over a group of people does not come for free. You have to prove that you are capable enough. For this reason, the muscles of power are often flaunted by people who swear that they want to gain the authority to rule. This struggle to gain power and exercise it is called politics. However, we live in a world where there are many contenders for the power to rule. Therefore, in terms of Social Darwinism, a struggle takes place between different actors. This struggle leads to a competition for power. The one who emerges victorious ascends the throne and rules. This is the story of politics and power. The characteristics of liberal democracies, however, tell a different story of politics and power. The practice, however, is very different from the theory. In a realist world, politics at home and abroad is a constant struggle for power. Realism and social constructivism complement the same ideas.
Based on the above premise that man is a political animal, he has always preferred to live in political societies. When the first primitive people found out that there were more people living on the other side of the mountain, they decided to live together. They decided to live together and benefit from each other's abilities. According to anthropologist Max Webber, this is how the first primitive political society came into being. Andrew Heywood goes on to say that over time, this primitive political society realized that we should choose a person from among ourselves who could arbitrate to avoid the everyday feuds. This person had a lot of power. Many others in the community wanted to have the same power. This struggle for supremacy to gain this crucial power laid the foundation for politics.
Today, when someone asks how old politics is, the answer is that it is as old as human history itself. Over time, as people conquered the entire world, the jurisdiction of authority and power expanded. Paul Kennedy, in his book The Rise and Fall of Great Empires, notes that violence did not become rampant in primitive kingdoms until the rise of the Vikings. The Vikings normalized violence in order to gain power and rule. Thus, from the Vikings to the Middle Ages, power was the only way to prevail in politics, and thus politics was the only way to exercise power. During this time, a complex and complicated relationship between power and politics emerged.
Power is the ability to influence others. Power means influencing others to do something they would not do under normal circumstances, and politics, in turn, means having legitimate authority to exercise power and influence. It can be inferred that politics is a legitimate exercise of power. And any person who engages in politics to gain the authority of power is in fact playing for power. So, whether at the national or international level, any political activity is a pursuit of power. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Politics is just a dirty game of power where people try to increase their power at the expense of others. This ability to gain authority can only be established when a sufficient amount of force/power is already available.
On international fronts, great powers also compete with each other to maximize their ability to influence weaker nations to achieve their foreign policy goals. Diplomatic channels are used to achieve foreign policy goals, but when diplomacy fails, the state resorts to power to achieve its political goals. From today's world political scenarios, glaring examples of great powers using force to achieve their political goals force themselves upon us. It should be noted that not every state can use coercive measures at the international level, since all states are equal and one state cannot interfere in the internal affairs of others. However, we see that some states are more powerful and equal than others, and they use power to achieve their goals. Thus, power becomes inevitable for national and political interests. In this context, an effective foreign policy requires political power, which can be used as an instrument of foreign policy in the global interplay of politics.
The overthrow of the governments of Qaddafi and Hussein Mubarak through the drive of Western allies speaks volumes about the imagery of power in politics, to cite just a few examples. The Houthis in Yemen are trying to maximize their power to gain control of Sa'na, and the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia is indiscriminately bombing Yemen to curtail the power of the Houthis. Lenin and Mao brought about major revolutions in China and the then USSR through power and the use of force.
A distinction must be made here: Power does not always mean muscle. Power can be the use of tact and intellect to coerce, influence, or manipulate decision-making ability. In this context, a power game is currently being played in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region by the United States, its NATO allies, Japan, and South Korea. China also has its fingers in the pie. AUKUS, QUAD, and Five Eyes are being used as tools to maximize the influence of the world's self-proclaimed democracies on the high seas. China is responding with political savvy by progressively intercepting sea pieces along the Asia-Pacific coasts known as the String of Pearls. All of this is done to enhance naval power. Sea power is an instrument of influence on the international stage.
As noted earlier, politics is a struggle for power in world politics. Here, one must also understand that power cannot be studied in a vacuum. Power brings with it structural violence. The violence that comes with power is structural in nature. To put it simply, one man beating his wife is violence, but a million men beating a million women is structural violence. In this case, the violence no longer feels like violence because it is normalized. In this context, power and the binarity of violence become embedded in the political structure at the international level so that when aggrieved states are violated, they do not feel unjustly treated.
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