military power—
1. prerogative to decide enjoyed by military authority as contrasted to civil authority:
- The military power now humbled itself before the civil power.
2. potential capacity to wage warfare derived from military equipment:
- We know that, on account of the balance of military power, we have got to live with it [communism].
war power—emergency powers conferred on the government in wartime:
- It shall require a three fifths vote of the whole of both houses to authorize the use of war powers.