Niall Ferguson: “the assumption that power is simply military power: the capability to use force against others. Max Weber once characterized the modern state as claiming a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. In the international sphere there can be no such monopoly. But international power can sometimes seem to depend on monopolizing the most sophisticated means of perpetrating violence. The United States today enjoys the kind of technological edge enjoyed (briefly) by a few West European powers in the nineteenth century, when their possession of ironclad steamboats and machine guns put the world at their mercy.”

Ferguson goes on to argue that the power of the United States can be—but isn't yet—limited, one way being by strengthening organizations like the UN, NATO, and the EU, and another by increasing a country's population faster than the U.S. Ferguson then argues that the relationship between cheap oil and a country's wealth is stronger than the relationship between cheap oil and a country's power. Made plain is Ferguson's skepticism about whether the IMF, the World Bank or even the Internet wield significant power in international affairs. Less-examined, he says, are the roles faith, organizational stamina and other psychological elements play.