Structural Power and International Relations Analysis: "Fill your basket, get your preferences"

In this article, we will address current deficits of the study of power in IR by introducing a new concept of structural power. After briefly presenting existing concepts of relational power, of structural power as well as of conceptualizing power as the possession of resources (power-as-resources), we will introduce our concept of structural power as an approach suitable for bridging the gap between existing concepts (by strongly focusing on the importance of the structural level). We will show that structural power has a relativizing character and that it exists detached from a specific, case-related, relation between states. Furthermore our approach will offer the possibility to operationalize structural power, as well as the effects of the concept of interdependence introduced by Nye and Keohane.