Power-motivated leaders pursue dramatic confrontational foreign policy

Evidence

Other students of power, however, have seen such a limitation as unfortunate. While the use of power in manifest conflict naturally is of major significance, such cases may only reflect the visible part of what could be called the iceberg of power. In less easily discernible ways - so to speak, below the surface - power may play other and crucial roles in distributive processes. The power resources approach therefore focuses not only on the direct, but also on the indirect consequences of power, indirect consequences mediated through various alternative strategies and actions available to holders of power resources. — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface, 4 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Great-power policy discourse structurally requires an us-versus-them world split — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 140; Binary opposition organizes foreign-policy discourse into two opposed halves; China’s military leadership pushed for confrontation with the United States — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 600 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Power operates through indirect, non-conflictual channels hidden below manifest conflict #complicates (0.75) — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface, 4