Superpower

For other uses, see Superpower (disambiguation).

An American B-2 bomber in flight. Advanced military technologies such as this allow power projection on an international scale; a typical hallmark of a superpower

A superpower is a state with the first rank in the international system and the ability to influence events and project power on a worldwide scale; it is considered a higher level of power than a major power. It was a term first applied in 1943 to the Soviet Union, the United States and the British Empire. Following the Second World War, the British Empire was dismantled and the Soviet Union and the United States were regarded as the only two superpowers; engaged in the Cold War.

Currently, the most common belief among mainstream journalists and in the world of academia holds that only the United States fulfills the criteria to be considered a superpower; sometimes, given the unipolar nature of the world, it is described as a hyperpower . Others, however, dispute this notion, arguing that the claims of a sole American superpower are based too heavily on the idea that great power means military power. In the new international system, with its emphasis on economic and political influence, the United States is at a disadvantage, and non-military powers are becoming more important.

China and India appear to have the greatest potential amongst all the other nations of achieving superpower or near-superpower status within the 21st century and are often termed as emerging superpowers.

The European Union has economic power greater than the United States; as a result some consider that despite not being politically unified, it may be either an emerging or existing superpower, depending on one's viewpoint. Although, as mentioned above, mainstream journalists and most academia holds that only the United States fills this position as superpower (or hyperpower).

However, others doubt the existence of superpowers altogether, stating that today's complex global marketplace and the rising interdependency between the world's nations has made the concept of a superpower an idea of the past and that the world is now multipolar.

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 United States and the Soviet Union until the immediate post-war years (in the 1920s the term was used to describe electrification).Template:Inote

The term in its current political meaning is relatively new and was coined in the book The Superpowers, written by William Thornton Rickert Fox, an American foreign policy professor at 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 the British Empire.

The Suez Crisis made it clear that the British Empire, economically ravaged by two world wars, could no longer compete on an equal footing with the Soviet Union and the United States without sacrificing its reconstruction efforts, even while acting in concert with France and Israel. Thus, the United Kingdom became the closest connected, most important and most powerful ally of the United States on the American side of the Cold War.

As the majority of World War II 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 United States 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 United States or the Soviet Union. Despite attempts to create multinational coalitions or legislative bodies (such as the United Nations), it became increasingly clear that the United States and the Soviet Union 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. These alliances implied that these two nations were part of an emerging bipolar world, in contrast with a previously multipolar world. A number of nations undertook various programs to attempt to secure 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 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 began to be applied to the United States, as the sole remaining superpower of the Cold War era. This term, coined by French foreign minister Hubert Védrine in the 1990s, is controversial and the validity of classifying the United States in this way is disputed. One notable opponent to this theory, Samuel P. Huntington, rejects this theory in favor of a multipolar balance of power.

There have been attempts to stretch the term back in time. As such some consider as superpowers the Persian Empire, Chinese Empires, Gupta Empire, Maurya Empire, Mongol Empire, Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, and even the empire of Alexander the Great – this is not widespread however, and the validity of this tendency is disputed.

Characteristics of a superpower

Template:Inote The criteria of a superpower are not clearly defined and as a consequence they may differ between sources. However, the following factors can be interpreted as a non-exhaustive list of characteristics that are generally associated with superpowers.

Cultural

Strong cultural influence, having soft power. Cultural influence implies a developed philosophy 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 warfare as it allows possibilities such as retreat, regrouping and reorganization as well as placing distant radars and missile silos - even a richer country with smaller 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. Human space exploration may be considered one of the key defining economic characteristics of the Cold War superpowers, as this ability was a source of intense rivalry between them for decades. Space exploration represents an ability to spend in drastically wide-scale operations.

Demographic

A superpower should have a large and educated populace and should have a 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 effectively project unified military power globally, including nuclear weapons. However, nuclear weapons alone do not necessarily make a nation a superpower, and being a superpower may not necessarily require nuclear weapons, although some would agree that one should at least have the ability to create them relatively quickly. Nations such as Japan would fit this definition.

Political or ideological

A functioning political system that is capable of mobilizing resources for world political goals and immense ideological influence.

Lifted from Global CPR - http://www.globalcpr.com/org/super.html

The Cold War era

Main article: Cold War

  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

  United States of America

The term 'superpower' in this context was originally coined to describe the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America, which opposed each other politically and economically during the Cold War.

The Soviet Union represented the ideology of communism, and led the Warsaw Pact, known as the Eastern Bloc in the West.

The United States represented the ideology of capitalism and led NATO during the Cold War.

The Soviet Union and the United States fulfilled the superpower criteria in the following ways:

	The Soviet Union	The United States
Political	Strong system of government. Communist ideals spread influence over the globe. Had permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Strong ties with Eastern Europe and the developing world.	Strong and stable liberal democracy, influence over the globe. Strong companies allowed the US to exert further influence over capitalist nations. Permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Strong ties with Western Europe and the East Asian democracies.
Geographic	Covered 22 million km², 11 time zones; was the largest country in the world. Covered huge sea area, and encompassed vast deposits of minerals and large farming areas.	Third largest country in the world, with an area of approximately 9.6 million km²[1]. Vast resources of minerals, large farming industry.
Cultural	Vast influence over neighbors, varied and rich history and culture. Wielded influence through socialist and communist governments and organizations around the world. Communist ideals attractive to many over the world.	Huge influence over most of continent, integrated culture with Western Europe. Companies sold American and American-inspired cultural products all over the world. Freedom of speech attractive to many.
Military	Had the largest army in world history (13 million in 1946). Sizeable air force, strong navy. World's largest stocks of nuclear weapons, the largest territory in the world with an abundance of strategic resources, and the capability to develop advanced military and space technologies.	Bases all over the world, second largest nuclear arsenal in the world stationed on its own soil, and also in Europe. Technologically advanced army and world's largest navy.
Economic	Was the largest centrally directed economy in the world. At one point, produced 20% of the world's industrial output.	Largest capitalist economy in the world. Strong currency, the US dollar.
Demographic	Had a population of 293 million, was the third largest on Earth.	Has a population expected to hit 300 million. Now the third largest on Earth.

Superpowers today

A piechart showing the comparison in share of GDP (PPP) between the entities discussed in this article. The entities discussed in this article take up 51% of the world's total GDP.

The post-Cold War world is widely considered as a unipolar world, with the United States as the world's sole remaining superpower, with the largest economic and military strength. The assessment of current global politics may not be so easily simplified, because of the difficulty of classifying the European Union at its current stage of development. Additionally many argue that the EU is underestimated, while others argue that the notion of a superpower is antiquated, considering the complex global economic interdependencies that define this new century, and proposing that the world is multipolar.

Russia, as the legal successor state to the Soviet Union, also retains certain aspects of a superpower, such as a vast nuclear arsenal, a large population, the largest territory in the world with an abundance of strategic resources, and the capability to develop advanced military and space technologies.

Some analysts think the hegemonic stability theory explains the current evolution in international relations. Hegemonic states tend to overstretch their power, and new rivals will become gradually more powerful, eventually replacing or counterbalancing the weakened hegemony. Some believe this is actually happening at the moment.

Possible signals that a multipolar world is emerging are the rise of India and China, combined with the possibilities raised by the enormous economic clout of the European Union.

The United States

Most people consider the United States the only sovereign nation-state that meets all criteria for being a superpower. There are, however, some who believe that the EU is also a superpower (see John McCormick, "The European Superpower") - as it would be if the qualities of its member states are combined - and conversely there are many who do not hold such beliefs.

Geographic factors

• The United States is the third largest country in the world by land area, after Russia and Canada. (Counting the disputed Taiwanese area as part of China places the United States in fourth place.)

Demographic factors

• With almost 300 million people, about 5% of the world population, the U.S. is the world's third most populous nation and the most populous with a high Human Development Index.
• It has the highest population growth rate of all developed nations.
• It has a high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations, ranking number ten.PDF.
• It is the only industrialized country not expected to experience a loss in work-force or general population in the coming decades.

Political factors

• It is a stable federal republic.
• It contributes around 22% of the United Nations budget, and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (with veto power).
• Its stance on world issues is usually supported by other nations, especially the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Israel.

Economic and financial factors

• The U.S. has the world's largest national economy with over $12 trillion. The US has nearly 30% of the global market exchange-rate GDP. It is characterized by moderate to high economic growth.

File:WorldMilitarySpending.jpg

• The U.S. has a per-capita GDP much greater than any emerging superpower and higher than that of most industrialized countries, at USD $41,800. The U.S. has the third largest per-capita GDP in the world, following Luxemburg and Norway. The average American does, however, spend considerably more of his or her life working than does the average European.(see the controversies about GDP).
• Over the past 20 years, America's economic growth rate has averaged just over 3 percent per year.
• The U.S. is headquarters for many global corporations and financial institutions.
• American companies are leading players in in many fields, such as new materials, electronics and telecommunications, information technology, aerospace, energy, nanotechnology, biotechnology, medicine, bioinformatics, chemical engineering, and software.
• The country is a key agricultural and commodities producer[2] PDF, although it is dependent on petroleum imports.
• It has a decisive influence on international financial bodies, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; the American dollar is perhaps the most important reserve and convertible currency in the world.

U.S. and USSR/Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles, 1945-2005.

Military factors

• The U.S. spends more on its military than the next twelve countries combined. As of 2006, it has the world's largest nuclear arsenal and combines some of the world's most technologically advanced weapons systems with the expeditionary capability to project military power to any point in the world.

Cultural factors

• American culture is influential worldwide, especially in the English-speaking world (soft power, Anti-Americanism).

European Union controversy

Main article: European Union as an emerging superpower

The economy of the European Union member states, if combined, is the strongest in the world (although the strongest unified economy in the world is the U.S.) and gives the EU considerable political power.

There is some controversy as to whether the European Union should be considered a current or emerging superpower. While the conventional view is that superpowers need both statehood and the kind of military power that only the United States possesses, there are some who argue that statehood is unnecessary, and that the European Union has emerged as a superpower whose influence rests on "softer" forms of influence, and on a telling combination of economic and political power.

The EU currently features the world's largest GDP and consumer market and has considerable control over the global allocation of resources. Mergers and acquisitions have helped EU states build some of the world's biggest corporations, with a global reach that helps them compete increasingly effectively with US and Japanese corporations. The EU also has the euro, the only global currency that competes significantly with the US dollar. Combined, its military forces are the second largest in the world, and tow of its members - Britain and France - are nuclear powers. It is rapidly building a common foreign policy, and is working on a common defense policy. Yet there are many who argue that it is too politically and culturally fragmented to be considered as a single unit, especially since two of the principal levers of power - foreign policy and defense - are exercised principally by the individual member states. But this is changing.

Overall the twenty-five member states also have significant cultural influences on the entire globe, with European fashion, art and food being common place in nearly every corner of the planet. France and the United Kingdom are also members of the UN Security Council and have veto power. They are also nuclear powers. In terms of education, eight of the top fifteen ranks on the PISA were filled by EU member states with all western member states being represented among the top thirty.

Also, the EU even seems to have developed a sphere of influence of close geographical nations, which was typical of the United States and Soviet Union in the Cold War. Examples include candidate nations and EFTA members outside of the Union.

Much of the confusion seems to stem from the EU being a sui generis entity; that is, unique. Scholars are undecided as to whether it is an international organization or a new superstate.

Emerging superpowers

Main article: Emerging superpowers

File:Superpower2.png

People's Republic of China   Republic of India   European Union

People's Republic of China

Main article: People's Republic of China as an emerging superpower

The People's Republic of China is often considered an emerging superpower. Excluding economic data from Hong Kong and Macau, Mainland China is currently the world's second largest economy in terms of real GDP (PPP) and the fourth largest economy in terms of nominal GDP (market exchange rates) and is considered an emerging superpower due to its large population and extremely rapid economic expansion with an annual growth rate of 9.9%. With the world's largest armed forces, China is currently one of the only five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. However, while China is a large and unified state, it is also poor, its military lacks a global reach or agenda, it lacks a global currency, its financial institutions lack transparency, and its credibility as a global actor is undermined by its poor human rights record.

Republic of India

Main article: India as an emerging superpower

The Republic of India is currently the world's fourth largest economy in terms of real GDP (PPP) and the tenth largest economy in terms of nominal GDP (market exchange rates), with an annual growth rate of 8.1% . It is considered as a possible future superpower because it has a growing skilled workforce (particularly in the service sector and IT industry), a young population, and the second fastest growing major economy. It has a well trained Military coming with the world's fourth largest air force and a naval force which is long considered having "Blue water" capabilities. With India's democratic institutions, it is seen as a slow, but a stable long term growth story.

References and sources

Asia

• China, India Superpower? Not so Fast!

USA

• New study compares GDP and growth: EU versus USA

Books

• Todd, Emmanuel (200X). After the Empire — The Breakdown of the American Order. {{cite book}}: Check |first= value (help)
• Kennedy, Paul (1988). The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. ISBN 0-679-72019-7.
• Belt, Don (2004). "Europe's Big Gamble". National Geographic. pp. 54–65.
• Brzezinski, Zbigniew (1997). The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02726-1.
• McCormick, John (2006). The European Superpower. Palgrave Macmillan.