The Basics of Power: An analysis of United States’ Economic Power

Abstract

Academic, public and political debates on terminology and the exercise of power associate this phenomenon with the effects felt by the countries involved. The topic creates interest, controversy and diverse approaches of specialists, as it involves an analysis of the distribution of power in different structures of society, but also among the main actors of the international system. Interesting is also the evolution of power within this system in the direction of multipolarity, bipolarity, unipolarity and multipolarity, in which states have maintained or changed posi tions among themselves. The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of the economic dimension of power on its other components. The study is a quantitative one, in which the economic influence of American power is pursued on the social, political, cultural, technological and military components of power. Knowing this influence is essential in order to achieve a hierarchy of power typology according to the importance and implications for states, especially for international actors such as the United States, where all categories of power meet.

Keywords

• economic power; soft power; power centres; military power