Abstract
Although the issues of military studies are increasingly analysed in the framework of political science, the representatives of international relations and military studies use different ways of interpreting military power – one of the key aspects of military studies. With the intention of expanding the possibilities of applying theories of international relations to military studies, this article aims to show the need for a synthesis of theoretical insights into neoclassical realism and military studies for scientific interpretation and research of the military power structure. The inducement of inter-paradigmatic debates by revealing and comparing military power explanation methods reflects a theoretical attempt to expand the possibilities for the application of international relations theories on warfare studies. Although the application of neoclassical realism theory to the explanation of military power is not new, this study explores broader possibilities of the application of this theory. The study substantiates the influence of non-material resources and unit-level variables on the structure of military power while making the assumption that neoclassical realism creates conditions to reveal the process of military power conversion but not the content of military power.
Highlights
While defining resources constituting military power, representatives of realism and neorealism bring to light the significance of material elements – weaponry, manpower, a part of the state budget allotted to defence and modern military technologies (Raitasalo 2015: 98-99)
When defining military power in terms of resources, it is appropriate to maintain the theoretical assumptions that the transformation of resources into desired outcomes depends upon the perception of the security environment
This approach to interpreting military power draws attention to the fact that power as a resource perspective is developed in the works of some representatives of classical realism and, in particular, neorealism who treat exclusively material resources to power, such as military spending, the size of armed forces, gross domestic product, territory and population as a cornerstone of the state power (Ambrosetti 2017: 5-6), is limited in defining the structure of resources comprising the military power3
Summary
While defining resources constituting military power, representatives of realism and neorealism bring to light the significance of material elements – weaponry, manpower, a part of the state budget allotted to defence and modern military technologies (Raitasalo 2015: 98-99). Among the most frequently used quantitative military power measurement methods is the Composite Indicator of National Capability created for the Correlates of War Project (See Singer 1972; Singer 1982). Despite the prevailing quantitative methods of measuring military power in the interpretation of international relations, a significant number of sceptics note that the methods of measuring military power based on material resources are limited in terms of application (See Gordon, Trainor 1995; Woodward 1991). The methodology of war correlates is criticised for being suitable exclusively for the analysis of conventional conflicts. After the Cold War, most conflicts are asymmetric in nature, resource-based methods of estimating military power are no longer sufficient for military power analysis (Gentry 2011, 6). Given the limited explanatory power of methodologies for estimating military power based on material re-
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