Brittle Power

Brittle power is a way of describing a situation in which a country or organization has a lot of power but isn't able to use it very well or keep it for very long. For example, imagine a bully in school who is really big and always picking on other kids, but can't seem to get them to do what he wants, no matter how hard he tries. This bully has a lot of power (because he's big), but it's a brittle power because it's not very effective.