Power is the ability to do what one wants, regardless of the will of others.


Power is better than money for as long as it lasts… but it never lasts.


Power is simply control, money is just a form of control. Control over anything, be it external control like people, resources, land, etc. or internal control such as self-control (emotional, will, etc…) is power. Anything that involves control is power.

Also, abuse of power, or corruption would be in my opinion losing control. Next time you see a corrupt man, or anyone that abuses their power, just know that they lost control over themselves.


In the stone age, power was being physically bigger than the next guy.

After that, power meant loyalties and betrayals to gain the largest armies.

In today’s world, power’s most basic form is money, but it might change in the future.

Money is a means to an end, but power is the end. At the root of it, power is people. We build civilizations around people and true power comes from understanding people well enough to understand what form of power will take in your current setting (be it money or else).


Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception of an imbalance of physical or social power. This imbalance distinguishes bullying from conflict.


Bismarck is often cited as the quintessential realist, relying on power at the expense of ideals. He was, in fact, far more complicated. Power, to be useful, must be understood in its components, including its limits. By the same token, ideals must be brought, at some point, into relationship with the circumstances the leader is seeking to affect. Ignoring that balance threatens policy with either veering toward belligerence from the advocates of power or toward crusades by the idealists.


Power only burdens those who don’t possess it.


Power is the capacity of an individual to influence the actions, beliefs, or conduct (behavior) of others. The term authority is often used for power that is perceived as legitimate by the social structure, not to be confused with authoritarianism.


Power usually represents a struggle over resources. The more scarce and values resources are, the more intense and protracted are power struggles. The scarcity hypothesis indicates that people have the most power when the resources they possess are hard to come by or are in high demand. However, scarce resource leads to power only if it is valued within a relationship.


The person with less to lose has greater power in the relationship. Dependence power indicates that those who are dependent on their relationship or partner are less powerful, especially if they know their partner is uncommitted and might leave them.


Gramsci conceptualized this hegemony as a centaur, consisting of two halves. The back end, the beast, represented the more classic, material image of power, power through coercion, through brute force, be it physical or economic. But the capitalist hegemony, he argued, depended even more strongly on the front end, the human face, which projected power through “consent.”


In the culture and mythology of democracy, power resides with the people. Period. End of story. Any further inquiry not necessary and not really that welcome. Power has a negative moral valence. It sounds Machiavellian inherently. It seems inherently evil. But in fact power is no more inherently good or evil than fire or physics. It just is.


With soft power, the best propaganda is not propaganda. During the Information Age, credibility is the scarcest resource.


Neorealist and other rationalist authors dismiss soft power out of hand as they assert that actors in international relations respond to only two types of incentives: economic incentives and force.


National power stems from various elements, also called instruments or attributes; these may be put into 2 groups based on their applicability and origin — “natural” and “social”.

Natural:

  • Geography
  • Resources
  • Population

Social:

  • Economic
  • Political
  • Military
  • Psychological
  • Informational

Strange was skeptical of static indicators of power, arguing that it was structural power that mattered. In particular, interactions between states and markets mattered. She pointed to the superiority of the American technology sector, dominance in services, and the position of the US dollar as the top international currency as real indicators of lasting power. She distinguished between relational power (the power to compel A to get B to do something B does not want to do) and structural power (the power to shape and determine the structure of the global political economy).


Power is the capacity to direct the decisions and actions of others. Power derives from strength and will. Strength comes from the transformation of resources into capabilities. Will infuses objectives with resolves. Strategy marshals capabilities and brings them to bear with precision. Statecraft seeks through strategy to magnify the mass, relevance, impact, and irresistibility of power. It guides the ways the state deploys and applies its power abroad. These ways embrace the arts of war, espionage, and diplomacy.


Gross indicators systematically exaggerate the wealth and military capabilities of poor, populous countries, because they tally countries’ resources without deducting the costs countries pay to police, protect, and serve their people. A country with a big population might produce vast output and field a large army, but it also may bear massive welfare and security burdens that drain its wealth and bog down its military, leaving it with few resources for power projection abroad.


Proponents state that the right of conquest acknowledges the status quo, and that denial of the right is meaningless unless one is able and willing to use military force to deny it. Further, the right was traditionally accepted because the conquering force, being by definition stronger than any lawfully entitled governance which it may have replaced, was, therefore more likely to secure peace and stability for the people, and so the right of conquest legitimizes the conqueror towards that end.


Theo cơ sở của quyền lực:

  • Sức mạnh (Force)
  • Vị thế thống trị (Dominance)
  • Thẩm quyền (Authority)
  • Sự lôi cuốn, thuyết phục (Attraction)

Power is the ability to influence or control the behavior of people and outcomes. It’s about the capacity to effect or prevent change, regardless of whether one has the formal right to do so.

Authority is a specific type of power; it’s the legitimate or socially approved use of power that is based on one’s position or role within a structure or system.

Compliance with authority is often voluntary and based on the perceived legitimacy of the person or role. Compliance with power, especially when it’s not based on authority, might be grudging or forced.


National security: Protecting the homeland and American citizens from external threats remain a primary objective. This includes military preparedness, intelligence gathering, and forming strategic alliances.