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The seminar introduces into different ways of thinking power. As all major terms, the meaning and explanatory role of power depends on the theory in which it is embedded. In fact, depending on the theory it comes with, the term 'power' may refer to different concepts, such as e.g. agency, autonomy, independence, capacity, ability, influence, domination, government, order, hierarchy, or rule. The seminar shows how different social theories have incorporated power and what difference this makes for our analysis of international affairs. It does so by sequencing the development of power analysis in political theory and then in International Relations. This allows both a chronological but also logical treatment. It starts with the analysis and definitions of Weber, who combines an analysis of power at several levels (from metaphysical to empirical), and uses it both as a theory of domination and a theory of action. It then shows how power analysis has been increasingly reduced to a theory of action, before structural concepts of power and of governance have opened up to the initially wider agenda. Focusing on power allows the seminar to touch many of the –isms of international relations by embedding them in wider social theories. Pros and cons of the different approaches will be assessed.