1. Constructing Power and security in international relations
Máté Szalai

2. 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

3. 1. power

4. 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

5. What is your definition of power?

6. Resource-based
Relational
POWER

7. 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

8. 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

9. 1.1. Ray Cline’s definition
Military
Economy
Territory
Population
Strategy
Will
Power

10. 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

12. 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.
Constructing or effecting the framework in which the discussion about a specific problem is conducted.
The ability to get others to act in ways that are contrary to their initial preferences and strategies
The ability to shape the ideas and beliefs which effect others’ initial preferences.

13. 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

14. Conceptualizing Power
Hard power
Soft power
Coercion
Agenda-setting/Framing
Attraction

15. 2. Security

16. 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

17. 2.2. „Extended Security” (Emma Rothchild, 2007)
1. Whose security?
2. What type of security?
3. Who is responsible for security?

18. 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)

19. 2.3. The Security of Small states