machtpolitik means power politics. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 92 out of 100.
Why “machtpolitik” is a great word
MACHPOLITIK — [Noun] A political doctrine that pursues national goals primarily through the threat or application of military and economic force, treating power as both the principal means and end of statecraft. Borrowed from German Machtpolitik, from Macht ("power, might") + Politik ("politics"). Unlike "diplomacy," which traffics in the subtle currency of dialogue and compromise, or "idealism," which navigates by the fixed stars of ethical principle, Machtpolitik is the unadorned arithmetic of coercion. It is the gunboat anchored in the harbor, the punitive tariff enacted at dawn, and the treaty signed under the shadow of mobilized divisions—the grim acknowledgment that the international order rests, ultimately, upon a foundation of force.
noun
- Power politics.“Tensions have built up over the long years of Merkelian Machtpolitik and are emerging into the open, particularly in light of a mediocre vote-share at the election, yet another workaday coalition deal, the concession of the powerful finance ministry to the SPD, the allocation of the CDU’s few big cabinet jobs to inoffensively loyal Merkelites and the lack of hints at a succession plan at the top.”