A new power structure of the world

• Author: Anca Elena Benta - Otel Catalin
• Position: Legal adviser in the Ministry of Justice and Civil Liberties
• Pages: 13-17

A NEW POWER STRUCTURE OF THE WORLD

Anca Elena BenŃa

Legal adviser in the Ministry of Justice and Civil Liberties

Cătălin OŃel

Legal adviser in the Ministry of Justice and Civil Liberties

Abstract: Since old times, the source of power policy was represented by inequality

between states. Throughout almost the entire history there have been states which imposed

themselves more than others and not few times in detriment of others. In the past one would talk

about empires and great empires. Empires are inherently politically unstable because the

subordinated parts prefer almost all the time greater autonomy and the elites of the mentioned parts

act almost all the time to acquire greater autonomy. Thus, empires do not collapse but rather

disintegrate, usually very slow but sometimes extremely fast.

Key words: Power, tendency in the evolution, history

“Mica enciclopedie de politologie” defines power as “a social fundamental phenomenon

which consists in the capacity of taking decisions and of securing their achievement by using

different means of persuasion and constraint; power is expressed in an asymmetrical relation (ruling

– subjection and/or domination – subordination) between the factors at whose level it takes place.”

1

The players on the political scene apply power in relationship with the others in two ways:

first, “by using power directly in order to impose change in the competitor’s behaviour”, which

means using military force, and the second way of applying power is the indirect one, which uses

cultural and institutional attraction of a player to the other, in order to change the latter’s

behaviour.

2

Since old times, the source of power policy was represented by inequality between states.

Throughout almost the entire history there have been states which imposed themselves more than

others and not few times in detriment of others. In the past one would talk about empires and great

empires. Empires are inherently politically unstable because the subordinated parts prefer almost all

the time greater autonomy and the elites of the mentioned parts act almost all the time to acquire

greater autonomy. Thus, empires do not collapse but rather disintegrate, usually very slow but

sometimes extremely fast.

In modern times, especially in the 20th century and in the present, they speak of great

powers, whose main characteristic consists of military, economical and ideological domination or

all of them together.

It is known that the end of the Second World War brought from a geopolitical point of view

the division of the world in two big areas: the free and democratic world (the West Block) and the

closed and undemocratic world (the East Bock), each of them having a pillar, namely the United

States of America and respectively the Soviet Union. A bipolar world which will resist for almost

half of century, meanwhile each of the two great powers striving to extend the sphere of influence

and not few times resorting to armed force, in extremely violent conflicts, such as the ones in

Vietnam, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and so on.

3

The events which took place in the last decade of the 20th century led to the transformation

of the bipolar world (the USA and its allies – the Soviet Union and the communist camp) in a

unipolar world, with a single superpower, the USA, many times called “the world policeman”. In

this uni-polar system the USA was considered “a new empire”; succeeding in putting together the

political capacities with the military and economical ones as well as with the cultural influence in a

way which makes it stand out compared to other international centres.

1

*** „Mică enciclopedie de politologie”, Ed. ŞtiinŃifică şi Encicl opedică, Bucureşti, 1977, p. 373

2

S. NeguŃ, „Geopolitica. Universul puterii”, Ed. Meteor Pres, Bucureşti, 2008, p. 49

3

S. NeguŃ, op.cit., p. 363