Is military power still an important element of state power? Does military force improve a state’s security, or is military power a relic of a different age?

The Military Power of the State : Significance in Present Security Issues

Problematic : Is military power still an important element of state power ? Does military

force improve a State 's security Or is military power a relic of a different age

Thesis Statement : Military power is still an important component of state 's power . Its

importance however waned as state power in the Post-War era is configured in economic

and technological terms . Still , a strong military force is a necessity for other states who

want to pursue goals that require

intervention of other state 's sovereignty

The importance of the military in state power is a legacy of the era of wars , expansion

of territories and clash of ideologies . The Realist perspective of International Relations with

proponents like Hans Morgenthau , E .H . Carr and Walter Lippmann argue that states live in

anarchical system which forces states to improve on their military capacities as this will

ensure security of the state , considered to be its primary obligation Sovereign states to

political realist are the principal actors in the international system Political realism refuses

to identify the moral aspirations of a particular nation with the moral laws that govern the

universe . It is the concept of interest defined in terms of power that saves us from moral

excess and political folly . Put it simply , states can not trust other states as they are

perceived to be self-interested actors whose main goal is to protect their territories and

people or expand on them . Universal laws are absent in their notion of international system

only relations with other countries which are beneficial to sustain self-interests are

entertained . Otherwise , states follow the idea of Self-Help . Thus states improve on their

warfare and military capabilities . To them , only national security will provide means to other

ends like economic and social conditions

Yet times are changing , and the end of the World War II has resulted to the creation

of International Organizations that should manage the political , social and economic

relations of sovereign nations . When Morgenthau said the following , he has not seen yet the

impacts of organizations like United Nations , World Trade Organization World Bank and

prior to all these are Bretton Woods System , International Monetary Fund and the

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Trade

Organization

The statesman must think in terms of the national interest , conceived as power among other powers . The popular mind , unaware of the fine distinctions of the statesman 's thinking , reasons more often than not in the simple moralistic and legalistic terms of absolute good and absolute evil " -Hans Morgenthau

It seems like the modern ideas of Liberalism are prospering in this day and age . This

becomes the essential reason for state power to be reconfigured to that which gives primary

concern with economic conditions like how a state copes with economic and political

globalization . The interest for instance of most states is to be able to control regional and

global political and economic structures (e .g . European Union...