power politics

noun(used with a singular or plural verb)

political action characterized by the exercise or pursuit of power as a means of coercion.
international diplomacy based on the use or threatened use of military or economic power.

Origin of power politics

First recorded in 1935–40

Words Nearby power politics

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use power politics in a sentence

This downward spiral involving local power politics was obvious to the Americans in the valley.
Heart of Darkness: Into Afghanistan’s Taliban Valley | Matt Trevithick, Daniel Seckman | November 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
This is power politics, I knew, and push would eventually and inevitably come to shove.
Republicans for More Fat Kids | Michael Tomasky | May 28, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Since the end of World War II, Germans have absconded from the very idea of power politics.
Whose Side Are You On, Germany? | James Kirchick | November 6, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
For some years after that, American relations with Israeli governments were dominated by power politics.
Why Won’t the West Defend Middle Eastern Christians? | Diarmaid MacCulloch | October 27, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
The ICC is primarily a legal institution, but it is not sealed off to the dynamics of international power politics.
Who's Afraid Of The ICC? | Mark Leon Goldberg | November 28, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST

All the international rivalries, the power-politics, the eternal pressures and constant crises.
This Crowded Earth | Robert Bloch
I felt it was purely statesmanship, statecraft, power politics.
Warren Commission (11 of 26): Hearings Vol. XI (of 15) | The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
Their trans-ocean squabbles and power politics seemed to have settled into a pattern of a war or two per generation.
Back to Julie | Richard Wilson
Perfectionism, no less than isolationism or imperialism or power politics, may obstruct the paths to international peace.
State of the Union Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt | Franklin D. Roosevelt

British Dictionary definitions for power politics

power politics

noun

(functioning as singular) (in international affairs) the threat or use of force as an instrument of national policy

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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