Although the idea of high politics has been present in all cultures and epochs,
Thomas Hobbes was the first to enunciate that survival (of
trade, the
laws, societal order) hinges upon a finite number of ingredients; these ingredients were embodied and provided by the state. Interpreting Hobbes, these ingredients are what one can call "high politics". The term "high politics" in itself was probably coined during the
Cold War, given the stakes of an
atomic war. The advent of the
atomic bomb made it clear what was ultimately worth fighting for and what was not, hence, made clear what "high politics" meant. In that sense, the
United States and the former
Soviet Union would have gone to
war for a direct atomic threat (
Cuban Missile Crisis), but would have never gone to war over "low politics", a
boycott of the
1980 Summer Olympics. Trade, for all its importance, is considered by most political scientists as "low politics", as it depends on specific security conditions to come into effect. Low politics is a concept that covers all matters that are not absolutely vital to the survival of the state as the economics and the social affairs. The low politics are the domain of the state's welfare. It concerns all things about social or
human security.
Robert Keohane and
Joseph Nye describe that previously, the
international relations were based on a simple interdependence scheme based on
national security (high politics); nowadays the international relations are ruled by a
complex interdependence based on domestic issues: low politics. The
classical realist theory of international relations only considers the high politics as relevant and completely rejects the low politics. The complex interdependence of the
liberal theory considers the low politics as fundamental without rejecting the high politics. ==References==