And the Answer, Alex, is Noopolitik

The other day I was watching an episode of Jeopardy (when I know I should have been working on my blog posts). When the contestant chose the answer clue along the lines of “This is the theory of hard power diplomacy termed by 19^th Century German politician Ludwig von Rochau”, I was at once reminded that I should get back to my IC homework, but also very excited to know that the answer was realpolitik!

It was a very fitting episode of Jeopardy, since we had just completed our in class review of some basic IR theory which included a discussion of realpolitik and its opponent, noopolitik. Often the two are differentiated by realpolitik’s association with ‘hard power’ and noopolitik’s association with ‘soft power’. However, it seems that the each encompasses more than just those two notions, and the distinction is made clearer for me when looking at the answer to another question we raised in class: what is the power of NGO’s?

While realpolitik is characterized by the notion of hierarchical organizational power, noopolitik is the notion that power and influence lie with knowledge and ideas. Anne-Marie Slaughter coined the term collaborative power, which is an illustration of the power in working with organizations and diverse groups of people to mobilize action or to achieve a common goal. Collaborative power, while related to the of noopolitik and the power that lies within the ability to collaborate on ideas and knowledge to mobilize populations (as opposed to the realpolitik notion of commanding action), is a characteristic of the system as opposed to soft power which is some possessed by nation-states. No one individual or organization possesses collaborative power; rather it is a function of the networked society in which collaboration is more effective in getting goals accomplished.  In her article A New Theory for the Foreign Policy Frontier: Collaborative Power, Slaughter describes what distinguishes collaborative power: “One familiar distinction is "power with" versus "power over." The power that interests Nye is the power that a person, group, or institution exercises over other people, groups, or institutions, getting them to do something they would not have done on their own. "Power with," on the other hand, is the power of multiple actors to get something done collaboratively.”

Therefore, it appears the power of NGO’s comes from the ability to mobilize populations, connect organizations and people to each other and resources, and adapt to various and changing needs, all of which are characteristics of Slaughter’s notion of collaborative power. Although the forces of realpolitik are still at play in conflicts around the world, it seems that noopolitik has more influence to mobilize and inspire action and positive change in the current globalized, interdependent and interconnected world.