The Validity of Normative Power in International Politics in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The concept of “normative power” has emerged, as states continuously looked for additional ways to infuse norms within a system. Normative power refers to the power of governing the creation, deletion, or modification of norms within a system or society, and thus entails a strong power of attraction. As most norms are informal having no legal binding, therefore, they seem to be weak in their application. This raises the question of the effectiveness of normative power in the twenty-first century. However, universality, equality, similarity, necessity, etc. provide the moral justification of norms and help them to be infused within state and social systems. Universality also provides the legitimacy of the use of normative power by its actors across the globe. As the world is changing, therefore, more norms will be created and due to the increased interdependency and connectivity, the necessity of norms will also increase. At the same time without legal binding, norms provide greater flexibility in states’ actions. Therefore, instead of entering into legal binding, states will attach more importance to norms and normative power in the twenty-first century.