Important Elements of National Interest in

International Relations

There are some elements that make for the

power of a nation in comparison to other
nations. What are these important elements of
national power that make a huge difference in
relations with other nations? These are mainly
seven elements that make a national power. In
brief, these elements or  national interests  are
Geography, raw materials, natural resources,
population, technology, military, leadership, and
diplomatic capability. In this article, I am going
to discuss the most important elements of
national interest in detail.

Most Important Elements of National

Interest in International Relations
The following elements make national power of
a nation:
Geography
Geography is an essential element of a state, it
portrays a state in terms of its existence.
Geography makes it possible for a state to be
seen physically. It is the most stable factor upon
which the power of a nation depends.
History has often been described as geography
in motion. Napoleon once said, “The foreign
policy of a country is determined by its
geography”. Geographical factors have had a
decisive effect on civilization and national
development.
The “shrinking” of the world with modern means
of transportation and communication has
increased interdependence among people and
has brought them into closer contact in a variety
of ways.
The bodies of water i.e. oceans, separate
continental territories of a continent from other
continents. It is a permanent factor that
determines the position of a country in the
world.
It is correct that the importance of this factor
today is not what was some 50 or 100 years
ago. But it is wrong to assume, as well, that the
technical development of transportation,
communication, and warfare has totally done
away with the isolating factor of the oceans.
Size of Territory
The looming threat of nuclear war has increased
the importance of the size of the territory as
a  source of national power.
In order to make a nuclear threat credible, a
nation needs to have a territory, large enough to
spread its industrial and population locations as
well as its nuclear installations.
The connection between the large radium of
nuclear destruction and the relatively small size
of the territory severely curtails a nation’s ability
to effectively engage in nuclear warfare.
Therefore, it is almost the continental size
of their territory which make the USA, the
Soviet Union, and China the fearsome
nuclear nations.
However, in certain cases, the size of the
territory, whether small or big, becomes
irrelevant and sometimes disadvantageous too.
Despite its smaller territorial size, Japan
defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese war of
1904-05. Russia’s massive territorial size
became a handicap as it obstructed the
movement of her armies and supplies in distant
Siberia.
For the same reasons, the territorial size of
Russia proved to be a disadvantage when Hitler
attacked Russia in June 1941. On the other
hand, the big size proved a huge advantage
when Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 and
again in World War II by permitting Germany to
retreat that created problems of supplies for
Germany which prevented occupation.
In the absence of war great size in itself
becomes an asset because the vastness of the
area will discourage invaders. Size is related to
population, military installations, and
transportation routes. Big size – may cause
problems to accomplish national homogeneity,
administrative cohesion, and cultural
integration.
Therefore, the size neither should be too small to
lure expansionists to invade nor too big to create
problems of effective administration and
defense.
Geographical Location
To understand the Important Elements of
National Interest in International Relations,
geographical location plays a more significant
role in making national power. It helps in
erecting a stable economy upon an area and
people.
It is due to the location that a country is able to
develop lumbering, hunting, grazing, crop
culture, mining, commerce, and manufacturing
all pre-requisites for economic growth.
In turn, the dying economy does much to
determine the culture as mining gives rise to
mining towns, and commerce and
manufacturing to cities. Location with respect to
spatial relationship to other states also deeply
affects a state’s culture and economy and both
its military and economic power.
Location tends to make a state a land power or
a sea power with overall advantages and
disadvantages. England’s isolation gave her
partial exemption from the continental struggles
of Medieval Europe and added to her leadership
in  constitutional government, literature, and
industry.
North America came under French and English
sway, and Central and South America became
Spanish and Portuguese because these
continents are located westward of the
colonizing powers. Hawaii became part of
America because of its location and certain
areas became British for the same reasons.
Natural Resources
Natural resources are another important element
of national power. They exert influence upon the
power of a nation with respect to other nations.
The study of natural resources involves some
definitions, a series of classifications, and in the
mind at least, a distribution map.
We must also consider the sources of energy
and their relation to industrial strength, and in
these respects, observe the position of the
United States in particular. Also, we-must gauge
the well-being of states in terms of food supply
and the national power of states in terms of
their total assets in natural resources.
Raw Materials
Natural resources and raw materials are two
different items. Waterfall and fertility of soil fall
in the category of natural resources but they are
not to be taken as raw materials. Natural
resources are endowed by nature with certain
qualities/characteristics and have tremendous
utility for mankind.
They include minerals, flora and fauna and
waterfalls, and fertility of the soil. Some of
these, like minerals and forests, are both
natural resources and raw materials. There are
some kinds of raw materials which are
produced by manual labor like rubber timber,
tobacco, hides, and cotton. They should not be
taken as natural resources as they are
domesticated productions involving human
endeavors.
Resource means asset. It varies from place to
place and from time to time. Hidden and
unexplored coal deposits are not an asset, oil,
gas and a number of other things were not
considered an asset in the olden days. Even
today sea water, otherwise a great power, has
little value. Raw materials possess only
potential rather than actual utility.
The boons of ^heaven i.e., natural resources,
may sometime fall short of being natural
resources and even prove burdensome or a
liability.
Forests have to be deforested and livestock
eliminated, clay or granite or coal may obstruct
agriculture, and oil and salt may contaminate
the water supply to create health hazards.
Natural wealth may attract foreign aggression
and may entice the invaders to attack the state.
Raw materials are divided into three categories:
vegetable products, animal products, and
minerals. Vegetable products include foodstuff,
cotton, rubber, jute, oils, wood pulp, flex, sisal,
hemp, fertilizers, barks, roots, all kinds of wood,
bamboo, seeds, charcoal, nuts, and the
ingredients used in chemicals, medicines, paints
and varnish products.
Animal products include some foodstuffs such
as meat, milk, poultry, fish and eggs and wool,
hides, silk, some oils, furs, feathers, and
ingredients of some medicine.
Minerals may be further divided into various
groups as chemists and mineralogists would do.
Some minerals are classified as critical and
strategic.
Food and Agricultural Products
Foodstuffs are a very important element in a
nation’s strength. A country that is self-sufficient
or nearly self-sufficient in food and agriculture
has a great advantage over a state which is
deficient in food and agricultural products and
has to import the foodstuff, it does not grow.
Such a state will either have to starve or spend
a heavy amount of foreign exchange to import
foodstuffs vitally needed to survive. It is, for this
reason, the power and in times of war, the very
existence of Great Britain, which before the
Second World War grew only 30 percent of the
food consumed in the British Isles, has always
been dependent upon its ability to keep the sea
lanes open over which the vital food supplies
have to be shipped in.
Great Britain became acutely vulnerable
whenever its ability to import food was
challenged, as in the two world wars through
submarine warfare and air attacks, and its
survival as a nation was jeopardized.
Similarly, Germany which lacked foodstuffs,
though less deficient than Great Britain, was
forced to pursue three options to survive a war.
First avoid a long war through quick victory
before its food reserves were exhausted, second
the conquest of great food-producing areas of
Eastern Europe and third the destruction of
British sea power which cut Germany from
access to overseas sources of food.
In both world wars, Germany could not
accomplish the first and third objectives. It
acquired the second goal rather too late to have
any decisive impact. Thus, the Allied blockade
of German people’s necessities of life dampened
the will to resist and eventually proved an
essential factor in the victory of the Allies.
In the Second World War, Germany became self-
sufficient in foodstuff not through conquest but
through the deliberate starvation and large-
scale massacre of millions of people in
vanquished territories.
In most parts of the world, food is a major
problem, one closely related to the effective
utilization of human resources. Most under-
developed countries have to import large
amounts of food even to keep their people at a
low standard of living. In all these countries, the
proportion of the world’s population is greater
than the proportion of the world’s food
production. In most of them, the average diets
are nutritionally inadequate.
A permanent shortage of food is a source of
perpetual weakness in international politics.
India was a befitting example of this fact before
the so-called “green revolution” increased its
food supplies.
The deficiency of food that ravaged India was
due to two factors: first, the massive population
growth which surpassed the supply of food, and
second the insufficiency of exports to pay for the
import of the food necessary to make up the
deficit.
This two-fold unevenness cast the threat of
starvation on the Indian government and put
foreign policy under heavy strain. Despite other
assets of national power, which were available
to India, the lack of food forced the government
to start its foreign policy on a defensive posture
rather than from a strengthened position.
The same conclusion is made with regard to the
nations of the third world who live under
perpetual threat of famine without most of the
other assets which actually make national
power. These are the so-called “basket cases”.
which linger on expecting that international help
and generosity will help ward off the next
famine to enable them to survive.
Self-sufficiency in food or scarcity of it is a
strong factor in national power. But it is prone to
changes. There may be changes in the
consumption of food brought about by changing
patterns of nutrition. Agriculture may undergo a
change in technique which may increase or
decrease the yield of agricultural land.
A decrease in the output of agricultural products
may affect the health of the citizens who may
remain underfed and malnourished.
Malnourished people cannot produce as much
as well-fed can and they are constant sources of
discontent and unrest. “Hunger is the most
important factor in the world today.
The real challenge of the twentieth century is the
race between man and starvation.” There are
multiple causes/factors like rapid population
growth, natural disasters, increasing pressure
on arable land, civil wars, ignorance, and
corrupt and incapable leadership that greatly
thwart all efforts to win the inexorable race.
Basic foodstuffs like wheat, rice, corn, and
sugar are vital for the survival of human beings
and also essential for economic development.
Other agricultural products like cotton, wool,
and rubber are equally important with respect to
national power in addition to steel, iron or coal,
and petroleum.
They have to play a major role in the economics
of the states with respect to international
relations. All these items have massive utility for
industrial consumption and have been the main
subject of international agreements.
Malaysia and Indonesia are two important
countries that occupy strategic areas in the non-
communist world. They are major rubber-
producing countries and their economies are
based on the sale and production of rubber.
Their economies, therefore, would deflate if
foreign markets for their rubber are not
available. The governments of those countries
are deeply concerned about their dependence on
world market conditions for the consumption of
their rubber products.
They have to sustain the grave impact of world
price variations of raw rubber and elimination
from the market as well as the drastic effects of
extremely high prices during the Korean War.
They are worried about the rapid growth of
substitutes for rubber and the production of
synthetic rubber, particularly in the United
States which is their main market.
Minerals
Minerals are invaluable assets of any state. A
state rich in minerals is considered a resourceful
nation. Especially, the development of
mechanized warfare has increased the utility
and importance of minerals manifold. Minerals
are the backbone of industry It is, therefore,
very clear that an abundance of minerals is
imperative to build formidable military strength.
Sources of Energy
Major sources of energy are important elements
of national power! They range from the oldest,
human and animal, power to atomic and solar
energy. Manpower is also a major source of
energy in most parts of the world.
Coal is a major source of energy in the world.
The Soviet Union and the United States are the
largest producers of coal. Other coal-producing
countries are China, East, and West Germany,
Great Britain, Poland, India, France, Japan,
South Africa, and Pakistan since the First World
War, oil as a source of energy has become very
important for industry and war.
Most of the mechanized weapons and vehicles
are operated by oil. Therefore, the countries that
possess plenty of oil deposits have acquired
considerable influence which is due to the
possession of oil to some extent. The Soviet
Union has become more powerful because of its
being self-sufficient in oil while Japan has
become weaker since it is lacking in oil deposits.
However, oil is no longer an important raw
material in evaluating national power. The US
was the largest consumer of oil. Most of the
world’s imported oil comes from the Middle East
and Venezuela.
In 1967, oil production was 8.8 billion barrels in
the US, 5.6 billion in the USSR, 3.5 billion in
Venezuela, 2.3 million in Kuwait, 2.6 million in
Saudi Arabia, and 2.6 million in Iran. Iraq and
Libya are also important oil-producing countries.
Water power, especially hydroelectric power, is
vital for some industrial states like Japan and
United States and in many underdeveloped
countries such as India, where vast
multipurpose river-valley development schemes
are being brought into operation.
It also carries great significance in many parts
of Africa. The waters of many rivers are sources
of hydroelectric power, but some great rivers,
such as the Amazon and the Orinoco in South
America, the Yukon in North America, and the
Mekong in Southeast Asia have not so far been
exploited fully.
Natural gas is available in abundance. It is
piped for long distances in the United States
and the Soviet Union. In Pakistan, attempts to
explore oil, led to the discovery of Natural gas.
Atom is another source of energy that is
becoming very important with each passing day.
In days to come, it may surpass all other
sources of energy in importance and utility.
Although great emphasis has been laid on the
development of atomic weapons, many countries
have made considerable progress in the
peaceful use of atomic energy. Nuclear power
plants are operational or under construction.
Pakistan has acquired nuclear power and has
produced the atomic bomb. North Korea and
Iran are also trying to enrich Uranium and, are
on their way, to becoming nuclear nations.
Uranium and plutonium are the major
sources of atomic energy.  Minerals
containing substantial amounts of uranium are
available in many parts of the world and further
exploration is being done to unearth boundless
quantities.
At present, Canada and Kinshasa (Congo) are
the main suppliers of pitchblende from which
most uranium is derived. Uranium-bearing
carnotite has been found in a number of
Western States of the USA.
Other known deposits of uranium-bearing
minerals have been found in several countries of
Europe in the northern regions of European,
Russia, in Soviet Asia where it borders Iran and
Afghanistan, China, Japan, Australia, and
South Africa. Monazite bands containing
thorium, another important source of atomic
energy, can be obtained in several parts of the
world.
Iron and Steel
Iron and steel add much to a nation’s power
and strength. They are an important source of
raw materials. The US, USSR, France and
communist China are the major producers of
iron ore, The US, USSR, West Germany, Japan,
and Great Britain produce large quantities of pig
iron and steel.
Major sources of iron ore are the Mesabi Range
in Minnesota, the Urals in the USSR, Loraine in
France, northern China and Manchuria,
Labrador, Northern Sweden, Bihar and West
Bengal in India, and Bolivar in Venezuela.
Industrial Capacity
An advanced and well-developed industrial
sector is an indispensable ingredient of national
power. It provides a state with the necessary
raw material to build its military capability
which in itself is an important factor of national
power.
Modern industry is based on natural resources
such as coal, iron ore, steel, and petroleum. Coal
and oil are the main sources of energy, and iron
and steel are essential for the transportation
and construction industry and for the machine-
and-tool-using economy. The great nations of
today are those states which have these
ingredients in abundance and possess an
advanced technological base.
Centers of Heavy Industry
At present, there are only three great
“heartlands of heavy industry”, although there
are several other centers of growing industrial
strength that may become of real significance
within a short time.
One great center is the northern and
southeastern sections of the United States from
Chicago through the industrial centers of New
England and includes the great industries of
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Another is
Western Europe which could be divided into two
heartlands i.e., covering England and the other
covering the industrial complex in West
Germany, the Benelux countries, and Eastern
France.
The second most important heartland in Asia,
outside Soviet Russia, is in eastern India, where
coal and iron ore, and some petroleum are also
available.
The Position of the USA
The United States is a superpower of
impregnable status. It is a dominating
superpower because it has a stable, well-
developed, and vast industrial base. It has only
six percent population and seven percent land
area of the globe. It has nearly forty percent of
the entire world’s production capacity.
With the exception of the Soviet Union, it is
almost more self-sufficient in vital minerals and
raw materials than any other country. The US
enjoys an excellent position with respect to coal,
iron ore, and petroleum, the vital sources of
industrial strength.
However, the US is not self-sufficient in the vital
minerals used in modern industry. She is
completely deficient in tin, natural rubber,
industrial diamonds, and quartz crystals.
She has to rely on foreign sources for her
manganese, chromite, nickel, and bauxite
requirements. She has to import several
essential minerals in huge quantities like zinc,
copper, and lead which once she possessed in
sufficient quantity.
Population of State
So far, we have discussed about geography,
natural resources, and industrial capacity as
the necessary elements of national power. In
addition to these elements, there are a number
of other factors which contribute to enhancing
the national power of a state. These elements
include people, traditions, trends, diplomacy,
and leadership. All these factors are equally
important to make national power.
Perhaps the most significant fact about today’s
world is the number of people inhabiting it.
When we turn from material factors and those
compounded of material and human elements to
the purely human factors that determine the
power of a nation, we have to distinguish
qualitative and quantitative components.
The Population Explosion
During the past 150 years or so, the world’s
population grew at a tremendously faster pace.
It is indeed revolutionary as the rapid growth
rate altered the world’s political, economic, and
social culture. Most demographic experts believe
that due to famines, epidemics, and wars, the
world’s population growth relatively declined for
some centuries before 1650 AD.
The world’s population some 2000 years ago
stood at 250,000,000. It reached half a billion
only about 1620 AD the year the pilgrims
landed on Plymouth Rock. It did reach one
billion shortly before the American civil war.
Since then, the revolution has occurred, in a
century the world increase has amounted to
more than 200 percent and more recently the
“revolution” has become an “explosion”.
More than 1, 50,000 people are added to the
world’s population daily, and each year more
than 60,000,000. Every day a small city is
added, every month a new Chicago, every year
a New France, every decade a new India. And
every time your pulse beats in your wrist, three
more babies are born.
The reasons for this extraordinary increase are
associated with the industrial and technological
revolution of modern times which has brought
about great changes in political, economic, and
social organization.
Due to the new technologies, abundant supply
has become possible along with improvements
in medical knowledge and in popular education.
A marked decline in death rates and rise in birth
rate and a lengthening of life span are all
responsible for rapid population growth.
National Character
National Morale
Morale comprises spirit, loyalty, courage, faith,
and impulse meant to preserve personality and
dignity. It is entirely the product of the
techniques of propaganda, but it is also the
result of the impact on the public spirit of
incidents and events.
A defeat in war may lower the morale of the
nation or the death of the main leader, the
sinking of a ship, the defection of an ally,
additions to the enemy’s strength, and the
announcement of a huge budget, all lower the
morale. It is also affected by floods, epidemics,
accidents, famines, and earthquakes. Even
some good or happy news can cause bad
effects.
Morale is closely related to leadership. It is
strongly influenced by personalities, success,
and failure, and by dramatic words and daring
actions. Sometimes, words produce miracles.
American history is replete with dramatic
phrases which pushed the nation into a fighting
mood.
Morale-building is not the exclusive domain of
national leaders. It is everybody’s job in a
democratic set-up. In World War I, many people
made notable contributions. These persons
worked diligently to awaken others for the
national cause.
National Character
Morale is related to “national character”. But
this relationship is vague and unclear. There are
a few examples that show the vagueness of the
relationship between morale and national
character. The Chinese cosmic exchangeability,
German’s thoroughness, discipline, and
efficiency, Russian’s relentless persistence,
Latin’s aesthetic instinct, and volatility, of
Americans and Canadians’ resourcefulness and
inventiveness, and the English’s dogged
common sense, to name some.
National Leadership
Indeed, dedicated leadership is an essential
element of power. Its importance is overriding
and encompasses other factors which make
national power.
Leadership is interrelated with the other
elements of national power. Without able
leadership, people cannot constitute a state,
without leadership there can be no well-
developed and integrated technology and
without it, morale is absolutely useless.
Leadership in War
In the olden days, effective leadership in the
war meant hiring manpower, requisition
unhindered supplies, and fighting well. Since
the advent of modern warfare, every resource of
the state has to be guarded, developed, and
fully utilized.
Even in a democratic state, it is the leaders of
the state who control all war potential of the
state. It is the responsibility of the state leaders
to make the maximum use of everything which
can contribute to national power to wage war.
Food supply, raw materials of industry, the
industry itself, transportation, communication,
public health, and military establishment which
itself has huge problems of organization, health,
strategy, morale, and  military government, all
pose a challenge for leadership to cope with
them.
Aside from the timely use of technological
changes, military leadership always has a
decisive influence on national power. The power
of Prussia in the eighteenth century was
primarily a reflection of the military genius of
Frederick the Great and of the strategic and
unique changes introduced by him.
Total war is total because it involves total
resources, total organization, and total effort.
Upon the political leaders of the state falls the
final responsibility for the coordination of all the
energies of the state.
Diplomatic Leadership
No state wants to fight a war. All states like to
live in peace as war is a loathsome venture. A
state enters into a war only when it is thrust
upon it. A supreme test of a state’s power is its
effectiveness in war. Every state wants to avoid
war.
The United States has been at peace with all
other nations of the world for just about ninety
percent of its existence between the declaration
of independence and World War I. She only
jumped into the war when Germany’s Hitler
pushed war upon her to quench his lust for
expansion.
Even in times of peace, states possess power. It
is due to the diplomatic effectiveness of a state
that it lives in peace and that speaks of the
competence of leadership.
Diplomacy performs multifarious activities. It
can serve its people by protecting them abroad,
by constant vigilance in the search for new
opportunities for trade, and by facilitating
established commercial inaction.
It can gather a wide range of information on the
geography, resources, techniques, culture,
military establishment, diplomatic interests, and
people of a foreign nation. Generally, diplomacy
promotes respect and goodwill for the state and
can keep its leaders abreast of the happenings
around the globe.
It is all routine and different from what is known
as “power diplomacy”. States which intend to
make their diplomacy a tool of power must
remain alert and aware of the day-to-day
happenings in the international situation which
concerns the rational interest most directly.”
Military Capability
One of the important elements of national
interest in international relations is military
capability. Military strength is an important
element of national power. Military
preparedness provides strength to factors of
geography, natural resources, and industrial
capacity to make them real sources of strength
for a state. The dependence of national power
upon military preparedness is very clear.
Military capability requires a military set up
which can support the foreign policy of the state.
Such ability stems from technological
innovations, leadership, quality and quantity of
armed forces, and an efficient and astute
diplomatic arsenal.
Varying and different technologies of warfare
have decided the destinies of nations as a state
with better technology could easily overcome the
one which was inferior and was unable to
compensate in other ways.
Europe during the 15th to 19th centuries had a
superior warfare technology to that of the
western hemisphere, Africa, and the Near and
the Far East and thus was able to expand its
power on the basis of its superior technology of
warfare.
The introduction of infantry, firearms, and
artillery with the traditional weapons in the
14th and 15th centuries resulted in a
consequential shift in the power distribution in
favor of those who used those weapons before
their enemies could do so. The feudal lords and
independent cities who clung to cavalry and
castles, found themselves dislodged from their
position of preponderance after the introduction
of these weapons.
What are the Important Elements of
National Interest in IR?
 Geography
 Size of Territory
 Location
 Natural Resources
 Raw Materials
 Food and Agriculture Products
 Minerals
  Sources of Energy
 Iron and Steel
 Industrial Capacity
 Centers of Heavy Industry
 Population of State
 National Morale
 National Character
 Leadership
 Diplomatic leadership
 Military Capability
These are notable elements of national interest
in International Relations.