The overall balance of forces imposes the form of war

Evidence

“Should we turn the expression around, then, and say that politics is war pursued by other means? H we still wish to maintain a separation between war and politics, perhaps we should postulate rather that this multiplicity of force relations can be coded— in part but never totally—either in the form of ‘war’ or in the forms of ‘politics’; this would imply two different strategies (but the one always liable to switch into the other) for integrating these unbalanced, heterogeneous, uastable, and tense force relations."" wa — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 296 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: State-led reform and national wars dominate the formation of modern states; Passive revolution is the political form of a war of position; Political movements should be analyzed via mass content and balance of forces (+8 more)

Related

• War of position replaced war of movement in modern democratic politics (similarity 0.90)
• Passive revolution is the political form of a war of position (similarity 0.88)
• War and politics are two codings of the same force relations (similarity 0.87)
• State-led reform and national wars dominate the formation of modern states (similarity 0.82)
• Political movements should be analyzed via mass content and balance of forces (similarity 0.81)
• Foucault proposed war as the model for understanding political power (similarity 0.81)
• The State-model history subordinates war and domination to the State. (similarity 0.81)
• War is the continuation of politics, not its own autonomous sphere. (similarity 0.80)
• Gramsci distinguishes one-off ‘war of manoeuvre’ from long-term ‘war of position’ (similarity 0.80)
• War drives the regular mechanisms of power beneath the law (similarity 0.80)
• Civil society may be structured by perpetual war between forces (similarity 0.79)
• War of position targets civil society’s institutions rather than a single decisive breach. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• War and politics are two codings of the same force relations #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 296
• Dominant powers codified their own practical invulnerability as the overriding war norm #exemplifies (0.75)
• Hegemony is an unstable equilibrium that dominant forces must continually resecure #expands (0.72)