the.com/political leverage
the art of making someone need you more than you need them.
means the power to make others act your way because you control something they cannot afford to lose.
from from the physics term for using a lever to move heavy loads with little force, borrowed by politics to describe moving people the same way, minus the pulley.
not the same aspower, which works even without cooperation
decays fastleverage vanishes the moment the threat is used
often invisiblestrongest leverage is never actually exercised
for instance
opec oil embargo 1973 — arab states cut oil supply, quadrupling prices and reordering global politics
debt ceiling standoffs — congress routinely threatens default to extract policy concessions
nord stream gas — russia used europe's gas dependence as a lever before 2022
swing state votes — ohio and florida decided elections by turning small blocs into kingmakers