Superpowers

• Cultural power


  How appealing a nation's way of life, values and ideology are to others, and is often exercised through film, the arts and food
• Resources


  Can be in the form of physical resources (fossil fuels, minerals, land) but also human resources (level of education and skills in a nation, and the sheer numbers of people)
• The extent to which nations enjoy the full range, or only some, of these aspects of power determines their status
• Only the USA, China and the EU could be considered true superpowers
• China's case as a superpower is weakened by its lack of cultural and political values and ideology
• Ideology


  A set of beliefs, values and opinions held by many people in a society, which determine what is considered normal or acceptable behaviour. Superpowers project their ideology on others.
• In the case of the USA, the ideology includes Western values of free speech, individual liberty, free-market economics and consumerism
• Superpower


  A nation with the ability to project its influence anywhere in the world and be a dominant global force
• Emerging superpower


  A nation whose economic, military and political influence is already large and is growing
• Regional power


  Smaller nations that influence other countries at a continental scale
• Pillars of power


  • Economic
  • Military
  • Political
• Superpowers, such as the USA, have all of these pillars of power, whereas other nations may be strong in some areas but weaker in others
• A large and powerful economy gives nations the resources to build and maintain a powerful military, exploit natural resources and develop human resources through education
• Military power


  The threat of military action is a powerful bargaining chip, and military force can be used to achieve geopolitical goals. Some forms of military power, such as a blue water navy, drone, missile and satellite technology, can be deployed globally and reach distant places
• Political power


  The ability to influence others through diplomacy to 'get your way' is important and is exercised through international organisations such as the UN and World Trade Organization, and through bilateral talks between countries
• Data on superpower characteristics can be used to quantify their power and influence
• Measures of superpower status

  • Total PPP GDP
  • Total population
  • Nuclear warheads
  • TNCs (economic, political and cultural influence)
• The UK, a relatively small country, once ruled over a vast empire and was a major superpower, but has since declined in global influence
• Very broadly, land power has become less important and soft power has become more important over time
• During the colonial and imperial era, from 1600-1900, powerful countries expanded and consolidated territory by military force
• Halford Mackinder, a British geographer, identified a region of Eurasia called the Heartland, which he believed was the key strategic location in the world
• Mackinder's Heartland Theory was influential because it contributed to policies of containment after the First World War, to limit the ability of Germany to expand its land area
• REC


  nation to do
• The post-Second World War NATO allies' attempts

  1. Contain the Soviet Union

  2. Expanding in western and southern Europe
• The American Truman Doctrine policy of the 1940s and 1950s


  Contain the spread of communism from the Soviet Union and China
• In the twenty-first century, superpowers and emerging powers cannot move contemporary hardware about like pieces on a chess board
• Soft power diplomacy is proportionately more important
• Hard power does play a role even today
• Hard power examples


  • The Gulf War (1990-1)
  • The invasion of Iraq in 2003 by US-led forces
  • The American-led war in Afghanistan (2001-14)
• Hard power examples


  • The Russian annexation of Crimea in Ukraine in 2014
  • The economic sanctions imposed on Russia in response by the EU, USA and other nations
• Unipolar world


  One dominated by one superpower, e.g. the British Empire
• Bipolar world


  One in which two superpowers, with opposing ideologies, vie for power, e.g. the USA and USSR during the Cold War
• Multi-polar world


  Many superpowers and emerging powers compete for power in different regions
• The high point of superpower polarity could be argued was the British Empire
• The UK, a relatively small country, managed to maintain a global empire that, by 1920 ruled over twenty per cent of the world's population and 25 per cent of its land area
• The Royal Navy dominated the world's oceans during this period, protecting the colonies and the trade routes between them and Britain
• Cold War


  A period of tension between ideologically rival superpowers the capitalist USA and communist USSR that lasted from 1945 to 1990
• The Cold War was also the period when nuclear weapons, and systems to deliver them, were perfected, adding to the tension
• The global geopolitical situation in the 1930s was increasingly multi-polar, with emerging powers challenging the traditional global influence of established colonial powers and regional powers
• The post-colonial era came to an end relatively quickly after the end of the Second World War in 1945