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Why is power important to international relations


             Although there are observervers of international relations who have argued that governments do infact have a choice of using either "power politics" or other means to gain their objectives. So some governments may be more prone to using military threats than others as a means of influencing the behaviour of nations. Yet no government unless it is completely independent, self sufficient and isolated from the external environment fails to seek to influence the behaviour of the nations surrounding it. In order to influence other nations a state may make threats, though not necessarily of a military nature, they may offer rewards or commit various actions of punishment to induce behaviour that falls in line with its own interests.
             International politics clearly occurs between all states through which administrative transactions occur involving the use of power. It can therefore be argued that all international politics are in a sense "power politics".
             There are many elements creating power as well as many ways of applying it with examples ranging from friendly persuasion to the use of military weapons. Yet the purpose of power has always been to provide binding force to a states decision in either imposing or opposing a demand, and since states are not known to voluntarily abandon their own rights power plays an important role.
             Power can similarly be seen as the process of diplomacy, propaganda and pressure as their aims are the same whereby one side seeks to produce certain behaviour by the other side while the other side behaves or does not behave as desired.
             In almost all situations there is a psychological element within a power relationship. It serves as a transmission between the application of power and the resulting behaviour. For example a state may create prestige for itself in order to gain influence in the decision making process of another state. Similarly a state may assist another state so as to create a sense of obligation, which can then later be exploited.


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