Superpower
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A superpower is a state with the first rank in the international system and has the ability to influence events and project power on a worldwide scale. It was a term applied to the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. Any retrospective application of the term to an earlier great power or global empire is anachronistic.
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Origins
The term "superpower" was first used in this context in 1930, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, but did not become a primarily descriptive term for the USA and USSR until the immediate post-war years (in the 1920s the term was used to describe electrification).
The term in its current political meaning is relatively new and was coined in the book The Superpowers, written by W. T. R. Fox, an American foreign policy professor at the Columbia University in 1943. Fox used this word to identify a new category of power able to occupy the highest status in a world in which, as the war then raging demonstrated, states could challenge and fight each other on a global scale. According to him, there were (at that moment) three states that were superpowers: the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain with its empire.
The Suez Crisis made it clear however that the British Empire, ravaged by the destruction of two world wars, could not compete on an equal political, military or economic footing with the Soviet Union and the United States without sacrificing its reconstruction efforts, even acting in concert with France and Israel.
As the majority of the war was fought far from its national boundaries, the United States did not suffer the industrial destruction or massive civilian casualties that marked the wartime situation of the countries in Europe or Asia. During the war, the USA had built up a strong industrial and technological infrastructure that had greatly advanced its military strength into a primary position on the global stage.
Following the war, nearly all of Europe had aligned either with the USA or the Soviet Union. Despite attempts to create multinational coalitions or legislative bodies (such as the United Nations), increasingly it became clear that the USA and the USSR were the dominant political and economic powers of the newly emerging Cold War, and had very different visions about what the post-war world ought to look like. This was reflected in the NATO and Warsaw Pact military alliances. This implied that these two nations were part of an emerging bipolar world, in contrast with a previous multipolar world. Whether a true reflection or not, a number of nations undertook various programs to guarantee their own independent "superpower" status, such as the development of nuclear weapons by the United Kingdom, France, and China, as a rite of passage for being a "world player."
The idea that the Cold War period revolved around only two nations, or even only two blocs, has been seriously challenged by some scholars in the post-Cold War era, who have noted that the bipolar world only exists if one ignores all of the various movements and conflicts that occurred without influence from either of the two so-called superpowers. Additionally, much of the conflict between the superpowers was fought in "proxy wars", which more often than not involved issues far more complex than the standard Cold War oppositions.
After the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s, the term hyperpower was applied to the United States as the sole remaining superpower of the Cold War era. This term was coined by French foreign minister Hubert Védrine in the 1990s. The validity of classifying the USA as a hyperpower is controversial. One notable opponent to this theory, Samuel P. Huntington, rejects this theory in favour of a multipolar balance of power.
There have been attempts to stretch the term back in time in historical context. As such some considered as superpowers Ancient Rome and even the empire of Alexander of Macedon.
Criteria
The criteria of a superpower are not clearly defined and as a consequence they may differ between sources. The following criteria should therefore be interpreted as a non-exhaustive list of power factors that are generally associated with superpowers.
Current factors
Cultural
Strong cultural influence, having soft power. Cultural influence incorporates developed philosophic school and ideology.
Geographical
It should have a wide land or sea area under its control. Territory allows a country to mine minerals and grow food, increasing its self-sufficiency. It is an important factor in conventional land warfare as it allows possibilities such as retreat, regrouping and reorganisation - even a rich country with small territory is more vulnerable in a military sense.
Economic and financial
Superior economic power is characterized by access to raw materials, volume and productivity of the domestic market, a leading position in world trade as well as global financial markets, innovation, and the ability to accumulate capital.
Demographic
A superpower should have a large and educated populace and should have highly developed infrastructure and pronounced cultural and economic ability to shape the regions around them as well as the ones under direct control.
Military
Pre-eminent military ability, characterized by relative invulnerability, ability to deter or cause great damage, and capacity to project unified military might globally.
Political or ideological
A functioning political system that is capable of mobilising resources for world political goals and immense ideological influence.
Possible factors
Fossil fuel superpowers
Fossil fuels are increasingly scarce and are expected to deplete in this century. Having access to fossil fuels is therefore becoming increasingly important. Reliance on fossil fuels could also result in a multiplication of the value of fossil fuels such as oil. Resource rich nations like Russia could very well gain from this.
Technological superpowers
It has been predicted by many members of the international community, including Dick Morris (former advisor to President Bill Clinton), that technological growth in the coming decades will result in manufacturing industry going the way of farming and losing its place in the economy. Such a situation would particularly damage the economy of emerging superpower China
- Robotics, particularly from Japan and the United States will end the need for manufacturing employment. Workers in manufacturing industry would lose out to the more efficient forces of robotics.
- The services and information technology sector would increase in growth as a result of the technological revolution.
- These changes may result in new criteria for Superpower Status known as the ability to become a Knowledge or Scientific superpower.
- Globalization indicates that most technologies will be widespread in the future through internet and other global services.
The Cold War era
- Main article: Cold War
The term 'superpower' was originally coined to describe the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America.
The Soviet Union
The Soviet Union represented the ideology of Communism and led the Warsaw Pact, known as the Eastern Bloc in the West. The Soviet Union was a political, military, and economic superpower.
The United States
The United States represented the ideology of capitalism and led NATO during the Cold War. It was militarily, politically, and economically opposed to the Soviet Union, and was a political, military, cultural, and economic superpower.
Power distribution after the Cold War
The post-Cold War world is considered a unipolar world, as the United States is the world's sole remaining superpower, with the largest economic and military capabilities.
Some analysts think the hegemonic stability theory explains the current evolution in international relations. Hegemonic states tend to overstretch their power. At the same moment new rivals will become gradually more powerful, eventually replacing or counterbalancing the weakened hegemony. This scenario could be happening at the moment, as high military spending could weaken the USA in the long term. Other - currently major - powers could possibly benefit from this decline, eventually overtaking the USA's leading position.
A possible signal that a multipolar world is emerging is the strategic partnership between the (rising) China, India and the European Union, designed to create a multipolar world.
The United States as the remaining superpower
Only the United States currently fulfils the six criteria of a superpower. Because the United States currently has no equals in terms of power projection and influence, it is often called a hyperpower, although this term is disputed.
Demographic power
- Demographically, it has a large, slowly growing population of almost 300 million.
- The infrastructure of the United States is well planned and highly developed.
- It has a high literacy rate and a well-organized educational program.
Political power
- Politically, it has a stable democratic system.
- It is a key player in the United Nations due to its peace efforts in the past, although relations have been problematic in the recent past.
- It is an influential member of the United Nations Security Council (whose headquarters are in New York) with veto power.
- American opinion is supported by other nations, especially Western nations like the United Kingdom. Its stance on issues like Iran is also backed by the majority of the European Union Member States, in contrast to its stance on Iraq.
Economic power
- Economically, the USA is the world's largest nation economy. It is characterized by moderate to high economic growth.
- It is headquarters for many global corporations and financial institutions.
- The surge of tertiary and quaternary sectors happened in a larger scale in the US than anywhere else.
- Its size, location and physical conditions allows the country to still be an agricultural and a commodity powerhouse (although it is dependent on oil), having strategic reserves of those resources.
- Its technological growth and innovation is matched by none. The nation helds the leadership or important role in different knowledge fields such as new materials, electronics and telecommunications, information technology, aerospace, energy, biotechnology, bioinformatics, chemical engineering, and software among others.
- Its capital markets are the most important and developed in the world, including icons such as the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.The market capitalization of those exchanges surpasses of any other country and the fixed income market is enormous. Also its futures and options exchanges (Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Board Options Exchange, New York Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange) hold a central role.
- It has a decisive influence on financial international bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, both with their headquarters in Washington, DC.
- The American dollar is the most important reserve and convertible currency in the world.
Military power
- Militarily, the USA is spending more on its military than the next twelve countries combined. However, due to the size of its economy, the United States actually spends a far smaller percentage of its Gross National Product on its military than many countries. The USA also has significant military allies (like NATO and ANZUS) and military bases throughout the world.
- It has the world's largest deployed nuclear arsenal, although Russia has a larger stored nuclear stockpile. [1][2] The USA is also developing an anti-ballistic missile shield.[3]
- At the moment, few nations dare to risk open war with the United States due to its military and technological power. Terrorism, asymmetric warfare, and insurgency are its biggest military challenges.
Cultural power
- American culture is highly influential, especially throughout the English-speaking world, the rest of Europe, some countries in Asia and Latin America. According to some analysts, this indirectly enhances the power of the US. This power is often called soft power, or the ability of a state to indirectly influence the behaviour or interests of other political bodies through cultural or ideological means.
- The American culture and values, although fused somewhat with British culture, influence the way that the rest of the world thinks of the West. Effectively, Modern Western Culture and American Culture are seen as synonymous.
- The American way of life is a model for many intellectuals, athletes, politicians, artists, scientists and ordinary people throughout the world.
- The American colleges and universities are known for their excellence, attracting international students (opinion leaders in their respective countries) and facilitating cultural exchange.
- Hollywood spreads these cultural values to most of the world, excepting only those areas where its materials are excluded for political or cultural reasons.
Potential superpowers
It is possible that sooner or later another country will attain the power that the United States currently possesses. The following nations (China and India) and one supranational entity (the European Union) are referred to in many media sources as having the potential to become a second superpower.
China
- Main Article: Potential Superpowers - China
The People's Republic of China is often considered a rising superpower due to its large and stable population, its rapidly growing economy, and its rapidly growing military spending and capabilities. China possesses nuclear weapons. It has demographic, military, political, economic and cultural power.
European Union
- Main Article: Potential Superpowers - European Union
The European Union contains the former world powers United Kingdom, Germany and France along with many other countries in Europe. If considered as a full unit, the EU, along with the United States, fulfils the criteria to be a superpower except a unified military force. It may be argued that the European Union is too politically and culturally fragmented to be considered as a single unit.
India
- Main article: Potential Superpowers - India
The Republic of India has the potential to become a superpower due to its large workforce, its rapidly growing economy, and its rapidly growing service sector and software industry. India maintains the world's third largest military and possesses nuclear weapons. The Indian Paramilitary Forces is the world's largest paramilitary force. It possesses geographic, political, military, economic, cultural and demographic power, making it one of the best candidates for a future superpower.
Major Powers
- Main article: Major powers
A major power is a country that cannot be regarded as a superpower, but nevertheless plays an important role in the world. These major powers are very powerful and influential in several aspects. Some major powers are in relative decline, having once been Great Powers (France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom). Note that while China, India and the European Union are potential superpowers, they are at this moment still considered as major powers.
Brazil's large population and strategic location makes it a growing power in the world. It is major biofuel user, a large-scale provider of commodities and is currently vying for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Many see Brazil as one of the world's leading developing countries.
France has the sixth largest economy in the world and possesses nuclear weapons. It is also one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council and a key member of the EU and the Council of Europe.
Germany was once a world power. It has the third largest economy in the world and is a key member of the EU and the Council of Europe.
Japan is currently the second largest economy in the world. It is a world leader in terms of its technological capabilities.
Russia has a large, but declining, population and has the world's largest-equal arsenal of nuclear weapons, inherited from the Soviet Union, though the military has struggled to stay effective for financial reasons. It is a key member of the Council of Europe
The United Kingdom has the fourth largest economy in the world. It possesses nuclear weapons and has a technologically advanced military. It is also one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and is a key member of NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations.
