superpowers

• Factors that make a country powerful

  • Weapons/military force
  • Stable economy with high growth
  • Location (by the sea, away from fault lines)
  • Stable political system
  • Natural resources
  • High young working population
• Superpower


  A country with the capacity to project dominating power and influence anywhere in the world, sometimes in more than one region of the globe at a time
• Hard power

  Ability of a country to use military force or direct economic influence to make another country accept a situation or idea. E.g. colonialism
• Soft power

  Ability of a country to persuade others to agree to a situation or idea by making it attractive to them
• Heartland theory


  Mackinder's theory in how a country can control the 'world island' when they gain control of the 'rimland' (Eastern Europe) and then the 'heartland' (Russia). The heartland is protected from all directions by sea and mountainous terrain, meaning that if you control the East (its only weak spot) you are almost invincible. Potentially informed Hitler and the Soviet Union's drive to capture Europe.
• Britain became a superpower in its days of empire without capturing the heartland or eastern Europe
• In the modern day physical borders can be overcome by technology
• An alliance between America and Western Europe could stop Russian/Chinese world domination
• Eastern European countries are ex-communist now so more involved in the EU and NATO with minds of their own and less prone to capture
• Uni polar

  A world with one dominant superpower who is much more advanced than other countries
• Bi polar

  A world with two competing superpowers which is likely to end in conflict
• Multi polar

  A world with many superpowers all competing for global influence. In the modern day this is China, USA, UK, Japan and potentially the other BRICS
• Dependency theory

  Theory that says core countries (developed superpowers) control all other countries by making them dependent on their consumerism. Less developed countries serve the economic interests of the wealthy countries by supplying them with raw materials, meaning they become reliant on the income it generates and the countries who buy their goods. Model promotes exploitation and underdevelopment
• World Systems Theory

  Response to the rise of NICs (newly industrialising countries). Argued some periphery countries have become part of the world economy. Periphery countries supply raw materials, the semi-periphery is where manufacturing happens and the core sell on these consumer goods, taking advantage of the cheap labour costs
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

  Formed: 1967. Purpose: economic growth, creation of a single market. Members: 10 - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Successes: ASEAN's GDP is 5th largest in the world
• European Union (EU)

  Formed: 1956. Purpose: protect human rights and maintain peace in Europe after WW2, reduce inequalities. Members: 27. Successes: free movement of people has meant people can seek better jobs. Negatives: UK left in 2016, EUs power is weak, tensions between migrants and long term residents
• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)

  Formed: 1949 (beginning of cold war). Purpose: military protection (Article 5 - an attack on one member is an attack on all). Members: 31 (recently Sweden and Finland joined). Successes: US can maintain military presence in NATO states which protects them. Negatives: not all countries spend the required 2% of GDP on defence, some countries like the US do a lot more than others, NATO has failed in the past like in the 2003 Iraq war which was a waste of money and left the country very unstable.
• Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treaty (ANZUS)

  Formed: 1951. Purpose: protect the security of the pacific ocean. Members: 3. Successes: prevented Japan from rearming itself after WW2. Negatives: New Zealand no longer part of it, pretty much disbanded now
• Patents

  Ownership of intellectual property or an invention by the inventor so that others must pay royalties to use it.
• Patents encourage TNCs to invest in research and development of tech

  TNCs can make a large profit from royalties. Otherwise there would be no point for them.
• Counterfeiting

  Ripping off a product design to avoid paying royalties to the developer
• Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs)

  Agreement between WTO members made in 1995 to enforce intellectual property rights
• the USA spread modernisation theory after WW2 through bretton woods institutions as they believed communism was making people poor
• the IMF gives countries loans to fight poverty put force them to implement Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) which forces the country to cut public spending like in the UK in 1976
• IMF loans can actually increase poverty as the developing country gets into a cycle of debt
• WEF or davos group brings together businesses but has little say in policy
• the WTO promotes free trade
• the south china sea is important as one third of all world trade travels through it and there are natural gas and crude oil reserves as well as 12% of the world’s fish
• China claim 80% of the south china sea is theirs and has increased military action in the area, built artificial islands with military bases on them and blocked other countries from developing maritime resources there.
• there is conflict in the south china sea because UNCLOS says each country has an exclusive economic zone which is 200 nautical miles from their coastline. However, these overlap.
• NAFTA was created in 1994 and is a trade bloc between Canada, Mexico and the US. It allows US companies to make a greater profit by using cheap labour in Mexico, however it leaves less jobs for people in the US as a result
• in 1996 the World Bank and IMF created the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative which cancelled the poorest countries debts in order to allow governments to invest in public spending to improve quality of life in the countries
• the US spent $8 trillion on its war on terror
• in 2020 the US spent $780 billion on its military
• the US has the most bases and troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea
• Russia has a strong presence in the Arctic, with it sharing the largest border with it, its development of the town Barentsburg in svalbard and the most military bases in the area
• if more shipping lanes open up in the Arctic due to climate change, trade route between Europe and Asia will become 40% shorter
• neocolonialism is maintained by alliances, debt, aid and trade conditions
• Rostow theory says countries go through 5 stages of development: traditional society, pre-conditions for take off, take off, drive to maturity and high mass consumption.
• criticisms of the rostow model are that it is a very Western trajectory and does not leave room for outliers who may skip stages or reach another destination. The model also only really looks at economic indicators