Hard Power, Iran Sanctions

From what we read in our textbooks on page 7, we learn of the sanctions that were placed on Iran by the United States and the European Union.  The United States took action against Syria and the Islamic State, back in 2014. The book mentions soft and smart power were not options for an issue such as this one. This was a pretty serious issue and demanded the attention that it received. One major reason the United States and other countries were unable to use smart or soft power was that the Islamic State was in no way up for negotiation. The United States used military force in 2003 against Saddam Hussien. There are some varied opinions on this case: some weapon inspectors of the attack feel that there was not enough time given to prepare for this event. These investigators believe had their been more time for preparation there could have been a much smarter approach and use of smart power. These were placed in order to force Iran to reduce its nuclear weapon program. In 2012 the estimated gross domestic power drop was by 5.8 percent that year. The United States and the European Union put sanctions on Iranians. This was because they refused to acknowledge international order in regards to their nuclear program of which they were attempting to advance at the time, which neither the United States or the European Union liked. The European Union however throughout these sanctions was still willing to find a more diplomatic solution of which they eventually did. This is a great example of economic power. This way of economic power falls into hard power not only for its use of military but also for the United States and European Unions's means to influence the behavior of Iran's political body. Military power (a form of hard power) is extremely essential in hard power. A major part of military power is the resources we have which are simply: land, sea, and air.  Hard power is the way in which you can achieve aims through force. We know through learning the types of power that tactically within global politics states, communities, and other groups can persuade or force communities to do -- this is what hard, smart, and soft power refers to. An example we are given in our textbook is that state A can force state B to do what they want through these forms of power. We see this in the example I gave above where the United States took action against the Islamic State and Syria. The act of hard power going back to the example in the textbook will in a way convince state B to do what state A wants because of how much force is applied, in the case of hard power. The use of sanctions would also fall into a form of hard power, this is much needed if a state wishes to have strong military power which too falls into the hard power category.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/world/middleeast/impact-of-iran-sanctions-widens.html

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