power politics

American  

noun

(used with a singular or plural verb)

1. political action characterized by the exercise or pursuit of power as a means of coercion.

2. international diplomacy based on the use or threatened use of military or economic power.

---

power politics British  

noun

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

---

Etymology

Origin of power politics

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Opening the annual Munich Security Conference, he said "our freedom is not guaranteed" in an era of big power politics, and Europeans must be ready to make "sacrifice".

From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026

They’re not privy to the power politics of Manhattan after parties.

From Salon • Feb. 7, 2026

Ukraine underwent a similar rude awakening to the nature of global power politics after it surrendered its Soviet-era nuclear weapons in the 1990s.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025

Slow of speech, Fiennes’ Macbeth gives us a clue as to what Hamlet might be like if he had survived and learned to play the deadly game of power politics.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2024

Masters of power politics, engineers of genius, the Mexica were also upstarts and pretenders, arrivistes who falsely claimed a brilliant line of descent.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann