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Superpower
A '''superpower''' is a state with a leading position in the international relations|international system and the ability to influence events and its own interests and project Power in international relations|power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests; it is traditionally considered to be one step higher than a great power. Alice Lyman Miller (Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School), defines a superpower as "a country that has the capacity to project dominating power and influence anywhere in the world, and sometimes, in more than one region of the globe at a time, and so may plausibly attain the status of global Hegemony|hegemon."[www.stanford.edu] It was a term first applied in 1944 to the United States, the Soviet Union, and the British Empire. Following World War II, as the British Empire transformed itself into the Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth and its territories became independent, the Soviet Union and the United States generally came to be regarded as the only two superpowers, and confronted each other in the Cold War.
After the Cold War, the most common belief held that only the United States fulfilled the criteria to be considered a superpower,[Unger J (2008), U.S. no longer superpower, now a besieged global power, scholars say ''University of Illinois'']. People's Republic of China|China, the European Union, India and Russia are also thought to have the Potential superpowers|potential of achieving superpower status within the 21st century.[Waving Goodbye to Hegemony] Others doubt the existence of superpowers in the post Cold War era 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 Polarity in international relations|multipolar.Application of the term
The term ''superpower'' was used to describe nations with greater than great power status as early as 1944, but only gained its specific meaning with regard to the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II.
There have been attempts to apply the term superpower retrospectively, and sometimes very loosely, to a variety of past entities such as Ancient Egypt,[BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Glassmakers key to Egypt's status] History of China|Ancient China, Ancient Greece, the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire,[www.heritage.org][www.blackwellpublishing.com] the Mongol Empire, Portuguese Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Dutch Republic and the British Empire.[KAMEN, H., ''Spain's Road To Empire: The Making Of A World Power, 1492-1763'', 2003, Penguin Books|Penguin, 640p.]Origin
The term in its current political meaning was coined in the book ''The Superpowers: The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union – Their Responsibility for Peace'' (1944), written by William Thornton Rickert Fox|William T.R. Fox, an American foreign policy professor. The book spoke of the global reach of a super-empowered nation.[www.casaasia.es] Fox used the word Superpower 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: British Empire|Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The British Empire was the most World's largest empires|extensive empire in world history, which was considered the foremost great power and by 1921, held sway over 25% of the world's population[Angus Maddison. ''The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective'' (p. 98, 242). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development|OECD, Paris, 2001.] and controlled about 25% of the Earth's total land area,[''To Rule the Earth...'', hostkingdom.net, Bibliography, Accessed March 11, 2007] while the United States and the Soviet Union grew in power in World War II.
Characteristics
The criteria of a superpower are not clearly defined[www.tribuneindia.com]
In the opinion of Professor Paul Dukes, "a superpower must be able to conduct a global strategy including the possibility of destroying the world; to command vast economic potential and influence; and to present a universal ideology". Although, "many modifications may be made to this basic definition".[abe.etailer.dpsl.net]
According to Professor June Teufel Dreyer, "A superpower must be able to project its power, soft and hard, globally."[www.fpri.org]
Cold War
The 1956 Suez Crisis suggested that British Empire|Britain, financially weakened by two world wars, could not then pursue its foreign policy objectives on an equal footing with the new superpowers without sacrificing convertibility of its reserve currency as a central goal of policy.[Adam Klug and Gregor W. Smith, 'Suez and Sterling', ''Explorations in Economic History'', Vol. 36, No. 3 (July 1999), pp. 181-203.] As the majority of World War II had been fought far from its national boundaries, the United States had not suffered the industrial destruction or massive civilian casualties that marked the wartime situation of the countries in Europe or Asia. The war had reinforced the position of the United States as the world's largest long-term creditor nation and its principal supplier of goods; moreover it had built up a strong industrial and technological infrastructure that had greatly advanced its military strength into a primary position on the global stage.
Despite attempts to create multinational coalitions or legislative bodies (such as the United Nations), it became increasingly clear that the superpowers had very different visions about what the post-war world ought to look like, and after the withdrawal of British aid to Greece in 1947 the United States took the lead in Containment|containing Soviet expansion in the Cold War.[Robert Frazier, 'Did Britain Start the Cold War? Bevin and the Truman Doctrine', ''Historical Journal'', Vol. 27, No. 3 (Sep., 1984), pp. 715-727.] The two countries opposed each other ideologically, politically, militarily, and economically. The Soviet Union promoted the ideology of communism, whilst the United States promoted the ideologies of liberal democracy and the free market. This was reflected in the Warsaw Pact and NATO military alliances, respectively, as most of Europe became aligned either with the United States or the Soviet Union. These alliances implied that these two nations were part of an emerging bipolar world, in contrast with a previously multipolar world.
The Soviet Union and the United States fulfilled the superpower criteria in the following ways:
The idea that the Cold War period revolved around only two blocs, or even only two nations, 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 superpowers. Additionally, much of the conflict between the superpowers was fought in "proxy wars", which more often than not involved issues 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.[The World's Sole Superpower, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Accessed March 11, 2007] 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 in international relations|balance of power.
Other International Relations theorists, such as Henry Kissinger, theorize that because the threat of the Soviet Union no longer exists to formerly American-dominated regions such as Japan and Western Europe, American influence is only declining since the end of the Cold War, because such regions no longer need protection or have necessarily similar foreign policies as the United States.[Henry Kissinger, ''Diplomacy'', p. 24,26]
Post Cold War (1991-Present)
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that ended the Cold War, the post-Cold War world was sometimes considered as a Polarity_in_international_relations#Unipolarity|unipolar world[Charles Krauthammer, The Unipolar Moment, ''Foreign Policy Magazine'' (1991).][www.gaikoforum.com], with the United States as the world's sole remaining superpower.[Country profile: United States of America, BBC News, Accessed March 11, 2007] In the words of Samuel P. Huntington, "The United States, of course, is the sole state with preeminence in every domain of power — economic, military, diplomatic, ideological, technological, and cultural — with the reach and capabilities to promote its interests in virtually every part of the world."[www-stage.foreignaffairs.org]
Most experts argue that this older assessment of global politics was too simplified, in part because of the difficulty in classifying the European Union at its current stage of development. Others argue that the notion of a superpower is outdated, considering complex global economic interdependencies, and propose that the world is Polarity in international relations#Multipolarity today|multipolar.[Seizing American supremacy][The Coming End of the American Superpower][U.S.: A Losing Superpower?] Potential superpowers
Academics and other qualified commentators sometimes identify potential superpowers thought to have a strong likelihood of being recognized as superpowers in the 21st century. The record of such predictions has not been perfect. For example in the 1980s some commentators thought Japan would become a superpower, due to its large GDP and high economic growth at the time.[time.com 1988 article "Japan From Superrich To Superpower"]
Due to their large populations, growing military strength, and economic potential and influence in international affairs, the People's Republic of China,[US-China Institute :: news & features :: china as a global power][Visions of China, CNN Specials, Accessed March 11, 2007] the European Union,[www.globalpowereurope.eu][Europe: the new superpower by Mark Leonard, Irish Times, Accessed March 11, 2007] India,[India welcomed as new sort of superpower, IHT, Accessed March 11, 2007][India Rising, Newsweek, Accessed March 11, 2007] and Russia[Russia: A superpower rises again - CNN.com][Russia on the march - again - Telegraph][Russia in the 21st Century - Cambridge University Press] are among the powers which are most often cited as having the ability to influence future world politics and reach the status of superpower in the 21st century. While some believe one (or more) of these countries will replace the United States as a superpower, others believe they will rise to rival, but not replace, the United States.References
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- Erik Ringmar, "The Recognition Game: Soviet Russia Against the West," ''Cooperation & Conflict'', 37:2, 2002. pp. 115-36. -- an explanation of the relations between the superpowers in the 20th century based on the notion of recognition.
Category:States by power status
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