Power Politics and Welfare Thinking in International Relations

Traditional Power Politics

For thousand years, foreign policy was mostly power politics: great powers wanted to dominate the weaker ones, emerging countries tried to establish a new balance of power, international relations were characterized by struggles for existence between states.

The competition among great powers was the main subject of books dealing with
international relations. To cite only a few examples: Wolfgang Windelband published
his book about „The Foreign Policy of the Great Powers from 1441-1919“ in 1922
with the following chapters:

• the preliminary battles for predominance in Italy (1494-1519)
• the fight against the predominance of Spain (1619-1659)
• the fight against the predominance of France (1659-1815)
• England dominating the world (1815-1919)