ABSTRACT
In the absence of a superior authority to states, hard power is still widely used as a structuring concept in the discipline of International Relations, i.e., neo-realism and neoliberalism, but it has been criticized by showing how economic power, finance, social issues, and nowadays, more than ever, health matters, are of critical importance for the state and indeed the international system. Even the former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger – who has perhaps long been the reference of Realpolitik – has questioned whether the hierarchy of politics in the 1970s is still the same today:new and unprecedented kinds of issues have emerged. The problems of energy, resources, environment, population, the issues of space and the seas now rank with the questions of military security, ideology and territorial rivalry which have traditionally made up the diplomatic agenda. And since 1975, these policy fields have certainly not decreased in importance.
