Core · Power, legitimacy and source analysis

IB Diploma Programme Global Politics SL (the guide first assessed in 2026). This topic covers the core 核心部分 of the course, understanding power and global politics, which SL and HL students both study. Four key concepts 关键概念 run through the whole course: power, sovereignty, legitimacy and interdependence. Paper 1 (1 hour 15 minutes; 30% at SL, 20% at HL) tests the core through source-based questions 基于材料的问题: you read short sources and use them, with examples you have studied, to explain and evaluate.

In March 2021 a container ship, the Ever Given, got stuck across the Suez Canal for six days. Hundreds of ships waited at each end, and factories in Europe ran short of parts made in Asia. No government chose this, and no army could fix it quickly. One ship showed how closely the world's states and companies depend on each other, and how power in global politics is not only about armies. This topic gives you the concepts to analyse events like this.

Must-know for the core:

Power 权力 is the ability to make things happen and to influence what others do. It is a relationship 关系: a state has power over another actor in a particular situation, not in general.

The political scientist Joseph Nye introduced the term "soft power" in 1990.

Power can also be hard to see. Political scientists describe three faces of power 权力的三个维度: the power to win a decision, the power to decide which questions are discussed at all, and the power to shape what people want, so that some ideas are never questioned.

Sovereignty 主权 is supreme authority over a territory and its people. The idea is often traced to the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended long wars in Europe: each ruler controls their own territory, and outsiders should not interfere.

• Internal sovereignty 对内主权: the state makes and enforces the law inside its borders.
• External sovereignty 对外主权: other states recognise it as a state.

In practice, sovereignty is challenged from three directions:

States often give up some sovereignty by choice, because cooperation brings benefits: trade, security or a voice in decisions.

Legitimacy 合法性 is the belief that a government or an action has the right to exercise power. Power without legitimacy must rely on force, which is costly. The sociologist Max Weber described three types of authority 权威:

Legitimacy can come from consent 同意 (people accept the government, for example through elections) and from performance 绩效 (the government delivers security, jobs and services). A government that fails for years, through corruption or economic crisis, may lose it.

Internationally, legitimacy often comes from law and institutions. In 1990 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 678, which allowed member states to use force to remove Iraq's army from Kuwait. Because of this resolution, many states saw the 1991 war as legal and legitimate.

Interdependence 相互依存 means that what happens to one actor affects others. States depend on each other for trade, energy, finance, health and the environment.

• It is symmetric 对称的 when both sides depend on each other equally, and asymmetric 不对称的 when one side depends more. The less dependent side then has more power, for example the power to threaten sanctions 制裁.
• It encourages cooperation, because conflict becomes expensive for everyone.
• It also creates risks: a problem in one place (a blocked canal, a pandemic, a financial crisis) spreads quickly.

States 国家 are the main actors, but not the only ones.

For Paper 1, read each source with three questions:

1. Claim 主张: what does the source say?
2. Evidence 证据: what does it use to support this (data, examples, expert views)?
3. Perspective 视角: who is speaking, from what position, and what do they want?

Then connect the source to a concept and to your own example. A sample question from the IB: "Using Source C and one example you have studied, explain the reasons why international cooperation may be problematic for some states."

Worked answer outline.

Source C argues that cooperation can limit a state's sovereignty, because states must follow shared rules even when they disagree. For example, members of the World Trade Organization must accept the rulings of its dispute system, which can order a state to change its trade laws. Cooperation can also be asymmetric: a small state that depends on a large trading partner has less power to shape the agreement. However, states usually accept these limits because the benefits of trade and security are greater than the costs.

The answer uses the source, names a real example, uses two key concepts (sovereignty and interdependence), and gives a counter-view.

• Paper 1: 1 hour 15 minutes; source-based questions on the core; 30% SL, 20% HL.
• Power: hard, soft and smart, with examples; power as a relationship; the three faces of power.
• Sovereignty: internal and external; Westphalia 1648; challenges from above, below and within.
• Legitimacy: Weber's three types; consent and performance; Resolution 678 as international legitimacy.
• Interdependence: symmetric and asymmetric; cooperation and risk; the Ever Given example.
• Actors: states, IGOs, NGOs, companies and movements.
• Sources: claim, evidence, perspective; concept plus example plus counter-view.