Six Elements of Power: Economic
It is quite easy to think of the Economic Element of National Power as the fuel that keeps the other elements going. While that is true as far as the statement goes, that would be only part of the story. The Economic Element is the power (or weakness) of a Nation State in maintaining or expanding it's output in goods and services -- and how that output affects or is affected by other actors in the global economy. It is also the power (or again, weakness) of a Nation State in managing its dependencies on external events and actors.
There's a lot of situational truths to what is good or bad in appraising an entity's Economic Element, and they will reveal themselves in future posts on relevant world events. As a teaser, I would ask the reader to ponder: Is having a negative trade balance with another country a good thing or a bad thing?
The short answer is: "it depends".....which is only marginally less infuriating than the most famous of Economics weasel words: "All other things being equal"...
