the fungibility of force- art
spill over effects
-A military encounter, whether peaceful or forceful, yields a result that can be consequential to the interactions and the outcomes that take place in other domains -A spill-over effect can be understood is a byproduct -prerequisite: force checking creates something that is deliberate and viewed as essential in order to reach an outcome -As a by-product, the encounter produces something in another domain that may be beneficial but is incidental or even unintended.
Examples: Deficits, Petrodollars, and Oil Prices
-America's ability to run deficits, petrodollar recycling, and moderate oil prices illustrate how pervasive bargaining is -In all cases military power was not sufficient but without it, the United States could not have produced its positive economic outcomes
Linkage Politics
-second way force exerts influence on other domains of policy is through the power of linkage politics In politics, whether domestic or foreign, issues are linked to each other -The link can be either functional or artificial -If two issues are linked functionally, then there is a causal connection between them (A change in one produces a change in the other) -Thus, functional linkages produce causal effects that either magnify a state's weakness or add to its strength. When two issues are linked artificially, there is no causal connection between them. A change in one does not automatically produce a change in the other. In sum, linkage politics enhances the advantages of being powerful and boosts the fungibility of force by enabling it to cross domains.
intro
-two reasons why military power is essential to statecraft 1. in an anarchic world force is integral to political interaction -Foreign policy and military power work together 2. force is "fungible." (It can be used for different tasks (military and nonmilitary purposes)
spill over effects examples
Examples: Banking and Cold War Interdependence -in a well-ordered state, public force suppresses private force -this suppression is to create a generalized stability that sets the context for all societal interactions - This effect spills over into other domains and produces many manifestations
Conflating Sufficiency and Fungibility
per Baldwin, two consequences come from power resources: 1. the strength that power resources have 2. low fungibility of political power resources explains the "paradox of unrealized power": when strong states prevail in one policy area and lose in another. -The reason: The state has strong assets in the domain where it prevails and weak ones where it does not. Assets are not equal in fungibility, and fine-tuning does not mean dramatically altering assessments. (author) -Baldwin's four examplesto demonstrate the limited the versatility of military power. -example: (1) military power works better for defense than for conquest; (2) military power alone cannot guarantee pacification once conquest has taken place; (3) military power alone is not sufficient to compel a populace to accept the legitimacy of its government; and (4) compellence is more difficult than deterrence. These are reasonable statements. There is also a fifth that should be drawn from this: (5) when an outside power arrays itself in a civil war on the wrong side of nationalism, not only will force be insufficient to win, but so, too, will nearly all the other tools of statecraft—money, political skill, propaganda, and so on. -them. Thus, careful con- sideration of Baldwin's examples demonstrates the following: (1) military power was not sufficient to achieve the defined task; (2) none of the other traditional policy instruments were sufficient either; and (3) military power was of some value, either for the defined task or for another task closely connected to it. What the examples did not demonstrate is that states are unable to transfer military power from one policy task to another. Indeed, to the contrary: Each showed that military power can be used for a variety of tasks, even though it may not be suf- ficient, by itself, to achieve any of them.
Comparing Power Assets
-we don't have enough evidence to compare power assets according to their fungibility -power assets include: -population -geography -governance -values -wealth -leadership -military power **wealth and political skill are the most versatile, geography and governance the least versatile ----------- -three most fungible power assets are wealth, political skill, and military power. 1. Economic wealth has the highest fungibility. **Wealth is integral to military power bc rich states generate more military power than poor ones 2. Political skill is also fungible **wealth and skill are the two most liquid power assets and are interchangeable 3. Military power is a third fungible asset, its not as fungible as wealth or skill, -Military power is versatile because force is integral to politics, even when states are at peace. -military power is fungible because its physical use, its threatened use, mere existence creates expectations and influences an actor's political decisions -Militarily powerful states have greater clout in world politics than militarily weak ones. -Militarily strong states are less subject to the influence of other states than militarily weak ones.
