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A power vacuum is an expression for a political situation that can occur when a government has no identifiable central authority. The metaphor implies that, like a physical vacuum, other forces will tend to "rush in" to fill the vacuum as soon as it is created, perhaps in the form of an armed militia, military coup, warlord or dictator.

Historian Fernand Braudel compared the situation of Italy during the Renaissance as a "cyclonic zone, an enormous vacuum", which would sweep in foreign armies:

"The strength of the barriers in eastern and south-western Europe varied from century to century. The nomads' worlds rotated between these areas of negligence, weakness and sometimes ineffectual vigilance. A physical law drew them now westwards, now eastwards, according to whether their explosive life would ignite more easily in Europe, Islam, India or China. Eduard Fueter's classic work drew attention to a cyclonic zone, an enormous vacuum in 1494 over the fragmented Italy of princes and urban republics. All Europe was attracted towards this storm-creating area of low pressure. In the same way hurricanes persistently blew the people of the steppes eastwards or westwards according to the lines of least resistance.^[1]

During or following a civil war there is often a power vacuum of some sort. For example, the war-torn nation of Somalia is currently mired in a power vacuum, with no central government or president exercising control over the supposed "Republic of Somalia".

A power vacuum can also occur following a constitutional crisis in which large portions of the government resign, creating unclear issues regarding succession to positions of power.

After the Second World War, there was a power vacuum. Along with the division of East and West Germany, Stalin's diplomacy and governance, the development of the atomic bomb, policies of containment of communism, the expansionism of the USSR and a growing lack of trust (fear of a hegemony) were seen to be factors in the emergence of the Cold War.

The concept is relevant to many personal and organizational situations.

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