Power in International Relations

- Overview

Power is defined as a specific set of attributes that people use in their interactions and social processes that determine the various identities and abilities of those who exercise power. 

Most actors in international relations have various definitions of power, such as the American political scientist Joseph Nye Jr. defined power as “the ability to influence the behaviors of others to obtain desired results”. Likewise, historical theorists conceptualize power as goals, influence, security, and capacity.

While Nye categorized this influence into hard, soft, and smart power, scholars generally divide power into three distinct dimensions: 

• Capability: Tangible and intangible resources a state possesses, such as military strength, population, geography, and economic wealth.
• Relationship: The exercise of influence or control over another actor to get them to do something they otherwise would not.
• Structure: The ability to shape the overarching international system, control political agendas, and determine institutional rules. 

To explore how these different dynamics are applied in the modern global system, it helps to examine the three main forms of international power:

• Hard Power: The use of coercion and payment to compel other actors. This predominantly involves military force, economic sanctions, or financial rewards to force compliance. 
• Soft Power: The ability to achieve outcomes through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion. It relies on a country's culture, political values, and foreign policies to make others want what the actor wants. 
• Smart Power: The strategic combination of both hard and soft power. It emphasizes integrating military strength and economic leverage with robust diplomacy and alliance-building to address global challenges.

- Hard Power, Soft power and Smart power

There are three main types of international power: hard, soft and smart.

• Hard power is defined as a state's use of economic and military coercion to influence the interests or behavior of other states or political groups. This political power is considered aggressive because it is usually imposed by a stronger power on a smaller institution or government with immediate effect. Furthermore, it is often supported by superior forces with natural resources, economic advantages and even larger populations.
• As opposed to coercion, soft power is a force that attracts and persuades others to change and influence the preferences of others and nations. This power uses negotiation and influence to attract others. Soft power is necessary to improve interpersonal relationships and build lifelong bonds between parties. Soft power is best used on complex issues to help achieve a state of mutual benefit without too much difficulty.
• Intelligent power includes hard power and soft power. It involves the strategic use of diplomacy and persuasion. This genre projects power and influence in a very cost-effective way to legitimize political and social aspects.

- The Role of Cultural Diplomacy in International Relations

By showcasing its cultural heritage and achievements, a country can enhance its soft power and attract admiration and respect from other nations. This can help build trust and goodwill, which are essential for diplomatic relations to thrive.

A nation's cultural and heritage can have many impacts on political science and international affairs research, including:

• Nation-building: Cultural heritage can be used as a tool for nation-building and nation branding.
• Power dynamics: Culture and identity can shape power dynamics between nations, with dominant cultures creating imbalances of power.
• Foreign policy: Governments may include the promotion and defense of their cultural heritage in their foreign policy goals.
• Alliances: Shared cultural norms can foster alliances and collaborations for mutual security.
• Tensions: Cultural disparities might intensify tensions or conflicts.
• Cultural diplomacy: Cultural diplomacy can be used to project a positive image of a country on the international stage.
• Heritage diplomacy: Heritage diplomacy is the exchange, collaboration, and cooperative governance of cultural and natural pasts shared between nations.
• Political identity: Cultural heritage can be used to launch a political identity that takes cultural heritage seriously.
• Futurology: Heritage has been described as a form of "futurology" because it is produced in a conversation with the past, but it is used to stake out the future.

[Stanford University]

- Comprehensive National Strength (CNP)

Comprehensive national power (CNP) is the sum of a country’s economic, military and political strength in a certain period of time. It reflects a country's overall development level and status in the international system.

CNP can also be defined as a country's ability to mobilize and utilize its strategic resources to achieve national goals. It is an analytical tool that can identify gaps and boundaries in national power and balance interests in international relations.

CNP consists of three main parts: human capital, soft power (culture and policy), social harmony. The sources of state power may be different in each country and are subject to change. A country can exercise power through four means: economic, diplomatic, information, and military. Some indices that can be used to predict the CNP include: GDP, energy use, steel production.

The CNP of a country includes not only "hard power" expressed by economy, technology, and military strength, but also "soft power" expressed by culture, political values, and foreign policy. "Cultural soft power" is an important part of a country's soft power, which refers to the strong cohesion reflected by the advanced culture of a country, a nation or a region. 

- Silicon Chip Supremacy

The battle for semiconductor supremacy is intensifying as companies such as Intel and TSMC try to meet demand for smaller, more advanced chips.

Semiconductor chips are the hottest commodity in the race for global technology supremacy. Silicon is a semiconductor, which means its conductive properties can be enhanced by mixing with other materials such as phosphorus or boron. This makes it possible to turn the current on or off.

The smallest chips produced today are around 3nm, with 2nm chips expected to be available around 2025.

Some companies that make silicon chips include:

• TSMC: The largest semiconductor chip manufacturer, producing about 90% of the world's high-performance chips
• Intel: An integrated device manufacturer (IDM) that both designs and manufactures chips
• Samsung: IDM that both designs and manufactures chips

The impact of the epidemic (COVID-19) on semiconductor manufacturing in South Korea and Taiwan is considered to be one of the reasons for the global chip shortage.

- Why Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chips are Important?

In the coming years, artificial intelligence (AI) will play an important role in national and international security. Therefore, the U.S. government is enforcing how to control the spread of AI-related information and technology. 

Since general-purpose AI software, data sets, and algorithms are not effective control targets, people's attention naturally falls on the computer hardware required to implement modern AI systems. 

The success of modern AI technology depends on computing scales that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Training leading AI algorithms can take a month of computing time and cost more than $100 million. This vast amount of computing power is provided by computer chips that not only contain the largest number of transistors but are also customized to efficiently perform the specific calculations required by an AI system. 

This leading-edge, specialized "AI chip" is critical to cost-effectively implementing AI at scale; trying to deliver the same AI application using an older AI chip or a general-purpose chip could cost tens to thousands of times more. 

The fact that the complex supply chains required to produce cutting-edge AI chips are concentrated in the United States and a handful of democratic allies creates opportunities for export control policies.

- Digital Sovereignty and Sovereign AI's Role in International Power 

Digital sovereignty is a state’s ability to control and govern its digital destiny - including its data, infrastructure, and software - independent of foreign interference. Sovereign AI, its natural extension, is a nation's capacity to build and run artificial intelligence (AI) using domestic infrastructure, local data, and algorithms that reflect its own laws and cultural values. 

Sovereign AI's Role in International Power: 

In international relations (IR), control over the AI "technology stack" (data centers, semiconductors, algorithms, and training data) has evolved into a primary indicator of global power and national security. 

1. The New Arms Race and Structural Power: 

• Strategic Autonomy vs. Dependence: Traditional power relies on military and economic leverage, but today it is tied to technological self-sufficiency. Nations that rely on foreign-hosted large language models (LLMs) risk their intelligence and operational secrets being exposed to foreign jurisdictions. 
• Resource Control: Access to high-end hardware, like graphics processing units (GPUs), is now a heavily controlled asset. Nations regulate the export of semiconductors to prevent adversaries from training advanced autonomous military or surveillance systems.

2. Ideological and Cultural Influence: 

• Values in Algorithms: AI is not neutral; it encodes the cultural and legal values of its creators. By establishing Sovereign AI, countries ensure that their population is not subject to the ethical frameworks, censorship rules, or biases embedded in imported models. 
• The "Brussels Effect" vs. State-Directed Power: International relations are shaped by differing models of control. The EU uses regulatory power (e.g., the EU AI Act). China directs its state apparatus to override openness in favor of national champions and state-controlled data. The U.S. utilizes a mix of private-sector innovation and strict security tools to defend its technological advantage. 

3. Shifting Diplomatic Alliances: 

• Tech-Conditional Foreign Policy: Access to frontier AI capabilities has become a tool for alliance-building. Frameworks and alliances dictate that access to computing power and critical chips is increasingly conditional on political alignment and shared regulatory standards.

[More to come ...]