Smart power

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Kluge Macht is a book by the German political scientist and peace researcher Ernst-Otto Czempiel .

Theses of the book (1st part)

In the first part of his book Kluge Macht, Ernst-Otto Czempiel developed the thesis that the international world of states had become a social world ; because “interdependence and social interaction have undermined and overgrown states. They have been "denationalized", spatially "delimited". " (P. 22) This can be explained by the democratization that is increasingly taking hold of the world. “Society is emancipating itself within the state from the political system by which it was largely ruled and controlled until 1945.” (P. 30) Consequently, he regards the term foreign policy as out of date. It must be replaced by that of internationalizing politics. Because the social actors have emancipated themselves from the state and competed in the international arena with the political system . This can indeed establish rule within society (institutionally secured authority), but more and more often it is limited to power that is also available to social actors. Domestic and foreign policy intertwined in internationalizing politics.

He sees multinational companies and non-governmental organizations as the most important social actors . They used power in the international system like the governments themselves.

Three forms of power in the international system

Czempiel distinguishes three forms of power in the international system :

1. Relationship power with direct influence on another actor. This also includes violence ; but also any form of diplomacy directed at a single other state .

2. Influence on the outcome of the interaction of the states by controlling the process, with a new term called “ governance ” (for example the cooperation of the G7 and G8 states ).

3. Controlling international interactions so that they create new structures that better serve their own interests. The prime example of this is the Marshall Plan , which led to democracy and a liberal market economy being consolidated in Europe since 1947.

The second form is more effective than the first. But the third most effective. It could sensibly be called a meta-power , because the structures would permanently promote one's own interests .

2nd - 5th part

The second part of the book deals with the possibilities of such changes in structures. Czempiel advocates a democratization of the systems of rule. That is not possible through violence; but here direct influence is quite possible and sensible, for example through information about democratic possibilities via the mass media and about economic relations that arouse the desire in society for further intensive contact.

In order to achieve this structural change in democratization, the use of relational power to pacify civil wars (part 3) and drying up wars (part 4) makes sense.

The fifth part deals with the power of consensus that becomes effective in integration (especially in the EU ), in the Atlantic Community and in the other regions through cooperation . In this context, Czempiel once again advocates multilateralism , which is a political style in international organizations such as the UN and the organizations assigned to it.

literature

  • Ernst-Otto Czempiel: Smart Power - Foreign Policy for the 21st Century . CH Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3406453112

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