Superpowers

• Superpower


  A nation with the means to project its power and influence anywhere in the world and to be a dominant global force
• Types of powers


  • Regional power
  • Emerging power
  • Superpower
• True superpowers are very rare
• This unit explores past, current and future superpowers
• Between 1850-1945, the UK and USSR were superpowers
• Between 1945-1990, the USA and Russia were superpowers
• Since 1992, Russia, Japan, USA, China, Brazil, EU, and India have emerged as possible future superpowers
• Hyperpower


  An unchallenged superpower that is dominant in all aspects of power
• The USA was a hyperpower between 1900-2010, and Britain's empire was a hyperpower between 1850-1910
• Power spectrum


  • Size of circle represents size of nation's economy (GDP)

  Arrow shows direction of movement of nations/regions
• The USA's power is moving towards the emerging powers, while the EU and China are moving towards superpower status
• Hard power


  Getting your own way as a country, often using force
• Soft power


  Making policies attractive and appealing to persuade other countries to follow your lead
• Economic power


  Achieving power through a combination of hard and soft power
• Pillars of power


  • Cultural aspects
  • Political aspects
  • Resources
  • Economic strength
  • Military strength
  • Demographic characteristics
• Superpowers use various mechanisms to maintain their power, including military alliances, culture, ideology, and economic aid/trade
• Heartland theory


  Geostrategic theory proposed by Alfred Mackinder in 1904, which identified the 'heartland' and 'rimland' as key areas of power
• Britain used its navy and military to build and maintain its empire, which at its peak controlled a third of the world's population and land area
• Justifications for the British Empire included modernism, evangelical Christianity, and social Darwinism
• The fall of the British Empire was due to economic decline, loss of military influence, and decolonization
• During the Cold War, the world was bipolar with the USA and USSR as competing superpowers
• Today the world is unipolar, with the USA as the dominant superpower
• When analysing markets, a range of assumptions are made about the rationality of economic agents involved in the transactions
• The Wealth of Nations was written

  1776
• Rational


  (in classical economic theory) economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one
• Rational agents


  • Consumers
  • Producers
  • Workers
  • Governments
• Consumers act rationally by


  Maximising their utility
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by


  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by


  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Groups assumed to act rationally


  • Consumers
  • Producers
  • Workers
  • Governments
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• Resources you'd have had access to
• You'd have drilled down into the modernism
• You'd have looked at the evangelical christianity and your social diary darwinism justification for empire fall of british empire
• Here's the one of the resources you'd have had access to plus the youtube clip
• Looking at the economic decline the loss of military influence and the loss of colonies
• The next part of eq1 was looking at the changing patterns of power so in particular the postcolonial era