Power Politics
Power politics takes strong political leadership. People rely on the President to have good political leadership and stand up for our country. Power politics involve political aggression and it takes political leadership from a fearless leader to take charge.
Power politics is basically a state of international relations in which countries protect their own interests by force, whether it’s economic, military or political aggression. Power politics is a way of understanding international relations around the world. Countries are always fighting for the world’s resources. It takes strong political leadership for a country to use power politics and take charge. There are many different techniques used in power politics that require strong political leadership, including pre-emptive strike, blackmail, conspicuous nuclear development, imposition of tariffs or economic sanctions, covert operations, etc. The Cold War, for example, was a situation in which political leadership caused countries to partake in power politics. The Cuban Missile crisis was a confrontation between the United States, Soviet Union and Cuba that occurred during the Cold War. Faulty political leadership of Fidel Castro led to this crisis. Also, during the Bush Administration, many government officials took political leadership positions and helped fight the war on terror. The United States invaded Iraq in 2003, which called for strong political leadership from President Bush. He held his stance on political issues and took actions. There are other power politics issues like the conflict in Russia. Georgia wants to integrate itself into the West, and Russia wants to prevent just that. Those are just a few examples of how determined political leadership leads to strong political attacks. Power politics should always be the last resort for a country, which sadly isn’t always the case.
During the 2008 Presidential Election, many people were cautious of presidential candidate Barack Obama because he was inexperienced. Many thought that he wouldn’t have the political leadership it took to fight the war on terror and the economic crisis the United States is going through because he was inexperienced. Presidential candidate John McCain fought in the Vietnam War and had years of experience handling foreign affairs. But Barack Obama won the vote for President of the United States and promised to provide us with the best political leadership skills to tackle the major problems the United States is facing. There are ways of handling foreign affairs that doesn’t involve military force or nuclear blackmail. With the change in the White House, there should come a change in the way the United States handles its foreign affairs and business with countries around the world.
Basically, power politics is diplomacy in which a nation threatens to use force in order to obtain their objectives. Countries who attempt to use military force or some sort of political aggression need strong political leadership. Hopefully one day people will realize that power politics isn’t really the way to solve all issues. There are many officials that have strong political leadership that don’t practice power politics.