Power politics is a state of international relations in which sovereignss protect their own interests by threatening one another with military, economic, or political aggression. Power politics is basically a way of seeing the world of international relations: nations compete for the world's resources and it is to a nation's advantage to be manifestly able to harm others. It prioritizes national self-interest over the interest of other nations or the international community.

Techniques of power politics include, but are not limited to, conspicuous nuclear development, preemptive strike, blackmail, the massing of military units on a border, and the imposition of tariffs or economic sanctions.