1 State actors in international relations
1.1 Presumptive power of a state
1.1 Presumptive power of a state
Although it is possible to talk about other actor’s positions in world politics, the state’s capacity to promote the chosen goals remains unrivaled in the world political system. Power and strength give the state a unique position on the international stage. Therefore, the state’s functional and organizational characteristics also make other actors in world politics dependent on the state.
In its development, it is primarily the state that produces a set of rules and patterns of behaviour that have a decisive influence on the functioning of the system and the behaviour of other actors.
The power potential of the state determines its exceptional and decisive position among the actors of world politics. Even the position of a particular state in the world’s structure depends on its power potential. Political power is seen as an opportunity to achieve the balance and harmony in individuals’ and groups’ political-practical activities. And so forth is possible to ensure peoples’ and group’s required behavior.25 State’s capacity determines primarily the option’s scope, which affects the position in the system. The power potential of a state is its capacity and the real or potential result of a confrontation with the capacities of other states.
Nevertheless, legal norms or such components of political culture as morality, traditions, and stereotypes, social factors can also serve as a limit of power and strength, but also public opinion. These factors can increase or decrease the quality of decision-making by holders of power and, after all, the willingness and ability to use force.26
However, when evaluating the power potential, it is necessary to clarify the absolute state power. The absolute power can be afterward divided into material (geographical location, natural resources, population) and absolute spiritual power (level of foreign policy, which sets a national interest, national strategy, diplomacy).27 An important specification for this topic is the role of the territory. Defining the state’s position today does not take the form of the size of the state, but the will to define its interests in various regions and within reach of actual
25 THOMSON, Janice E., 1995. State Sovereignty in International Relations: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Empirical Research. International Studies Quarterly [online]. 39(2), 213–233. ISSN 0020-8833.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2600847
26 KREJČÍ, Oskar. Mezinárodní politika. Praha: Victoria Publishing, 1997. ISBN 80-7187-034-X.
27 Ibid.
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influence on decision-making and behaviour in these regions and maintaining an appropriately chosen level of control.28
The state’s power in international relations is described as one actor’s ability to force another actor to perform an activity that he would not usually be willing to do. Hard power and soft power divides into the phenomenon of power. The content of hard power consists primarily of economic and military power. In contrast, soft power consists of culture, ideas, and foreign policy.
As Joseph Nye says, power is like the weather. Everyone depends on it and talks about it, but few understand it.29 Power influences everything in the international community, from basic relations to the international system and world politics.30 In international relations it means making someone do something that you want them to do.31 Joseph Nye coined the concept of soft power within international relations to its opposite hard power concept. As designation follows, hard power is considered as a more aggressive way to treat and interact with other actors by identifying ourselves and our national interests and goals.32 Usually, hard power is composed of economic (coercive) and military capability, which can be used in military intervention, economic sanctions, and coercive diplomacy. Currently, it is used by actors who purposely violate international law or threaten common security.33
On the other hand, the soft power presents a more acceptable way by voluntarily creating an attraction based on the specific international image and prestige of a particular country, nation, and others. Influence is a part of the soft power that makes it possible to regulate other political entities’ behavior without force. Nye “defined it as the ability to get what one wants through
28 KREJČÍ, Oskar. Mezinárodní politika. Praha: Victoria Publishing, 1997. ISBN 80-7187-034-X.
29 NYE, Joseph S., 2021. Soft power: the evolution of a concept. Journal of Political Power [online]. 14(1), 196–
208. ISSN 2158-379X. https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2021.1879572
30 OHNESORGE, Hendrik, 2019. Soft Power: The Forces of Attraction in International Relations [online].
ISBN 978-3-030-29921-7. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29922-4
31 Ibid.
32 WAGNER, Christian, 2005. From Hard Power to Soft Power? Ideas, Interaction, Institutions, and Images in India’s South Asia Policy. No. 26, March 2005; Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics, ISSN:
1617-5069.
33 WILSON, Ernest J., 2008. Hard Power, Soft Power, Smart Power. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science [online]. 616(1), 110–124. ISSN 0002-7162.
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persuasion or attraction rather than coercion.”34 It could be done by appropriate diplomacy, economic, cultural, political values, policies,35 and related instruments by which a country is promoted.36 Moreover, Nye adds that “winning hearts and minds has always been important, but it is even more so in a global information age,”37 which is seen as a powerful soft power tool.
Besides others, smart power is seen as a combination of both. Thus the subject can more effectively achieve its goals. 38 As Gallarotti says, only the optimal combination of soft power and hard power can allow the leaders to maximise their impact and importance in the world.39 The amount of power the particular state has, distinguishes, besides others, between the superpower, great power, or regional power. The state needs to be accepted as a superpower by other international community actors to receive the superpower title. The superpower must have first-class military-political capabilities and a prime economy. Mainly, a state must be capable of global military and political reach. For a state or designated limited territory to be called a great power, it must meet several aspects, which Hurrel best explains. According to him, a great power can be a state that has the ability to actively participate in the creation of an international order, opinions, and decisions and to act in line with them. Besides, it also has excessive economic and military power. The necessary condition is also that this country must be accepted
34 WILSON, Ernest J., 2008. Hard Power, Soft Power, Smart Power. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science [online]. 616(1), 110–124. ISSN 0002-7162.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716207312618
35 NYE JR., JOSEPH S., 2009. Smart Power. New Perspectives Quarterly [online]. 26(2), 7–9. ISSN 0893-7850.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5842.2009.01057.x
36 SERGUNIN, Alexander a Valery KONYSHEV, 2014. Russia in search of its Arctic strategy: between hard and soft power? The Polar Journal [online]. 4(1), 69–87. ISSN 2154-896X.
https://doi.org/10.1080/2154896X.2014.913930
37 NYE, Joseph S., 1990. Soft Power. Foreign Policy [online]. (80), 153–171. ISSN 00157228.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1148580
38 WILSON, Ernest J., 2008. Hard Power, Soft Power, Smart Power. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science [online]. 616(1), 110–124. ISSN 0002-7162.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716207312618
39 GALLAROTTI, Giulio M., 2015. Smart Power: Definitions, Importance, and Effectiveness. Journal of Strategic Studies [online]. 38(3), 245–281. ISSN 0140-2390. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2014.1002912
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as a great power both outside and within its region.40 Buzan said that whereas the great power works at the global level, the regional power only works in his specific region, which is most likely his own as well. The state becomes a regional power, whether it also meets four preconditions.41 The state must be part of a geographically clearly definable region. Then it supposes to strive for a dominant role in this region and have the necessary preconditions for material and ideological dominance in the region. Lastly, the state has to possess an apparent influence in regional international relations.42
40 HURRELL, Andrew, 2006. Hegemony, Liberalism and Global Order: What Space for Would-Be Great Powers?
International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-). 82(1), 1–19. ISSN 00205850, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2006.00512.x
41 BUZAN, Barry and Ole WÆVER, 2003. Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security [online].
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cambridge Studies in International Relations.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491252
42 HURRELL, Andrew, 2006. Hegemony, Liberalism and Global Order: What Space for Would-Be Great Powers?
International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-). 82(1), 1–19. ISSN 00205850, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2006.00512.x
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