Superpowers

A superpower  is a country with the “capacity to project dominating power and influence anywhere in the world” A superpower may also be referred to as a hegemon with supreme power over other countries, hegemony refers to being the dominant force, power, ideology.  Superpower status is not fixed, there is a school of thought that suggests the centre of the world is no longer focused on the US but shifting towards Asia. If history repeats itself it is likely the US will fall or decline in superpower status as did the USSR and British Empire. Superpower can be determined by an array of factors such as

·         Land mass – physical size can indicate power, Russia is the worlds largest country, the larger a country the larger its sphere of control and territory, space means more resources, more people, more expansion opportunities. The future of the Arctic with its oil reserves lies mainly in Russia’s hands. However, with size comes more neighbours, Russia has neighbours that are somewhat polar opposites such as Norway a liberal, capitalist country and China an NIC, communist country, meaning its growth and further influence is perhaps stifled or conflicting and whilst this means more opportunity for Russia to exert its influence over more countries it also means it has more chance of opposition

·         Population size – the larger the population the high influence a country can have globally and the larger workforce or labour it has to build its economy

·         Natural resources – a country with natural resources in abundance can be seen as a superpower as they have the capacity to dictate the distribution of these resources or use them to fuel their economy. When countries withhold or limit supply of their natural resources do they gain influence for example the Middle East have threatened to withhold supplies meaning they gain influence over prices, whilst Russia has threatened to cut Ukraine’s supplies and has actually done so in the past, with the current turbulent situation it is likely to use its powerful resources as a weapon against Ukraine, unfortunately Ukraine is a major transit nation for the pipelines leading to Europe.

·         Economic power – the higher gdp and more wealth a country has the more it can invest in new technologies which can make it a power in leading science and technology, the more money it can lend to other countries which can come with conditions and thus influence and the high standard of living a country has, plus more money means more precedence on the worlds stage, it can give a country the worlds most powerful currency i.e the dollar. Unfortunately wealth often means power and a voice.

·         Military power – the more military the more ability to defend and protect and attack another country. The UN tries to dilute military power and has 5 permanent members China, USA, UK, Russia and France, all those who possessed nuclear weapons in the 70’s. The UN approves military action in extreme situations

·         History – historical superpower status such as the British Empire has left lasting legacy of superpower status, despite nearly all countries gaining independence the mark of the British is still upon other countries for example English is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. Many former colonies are still main exporting partners with the UK meaning the UK have influence over trade. However, many superpowers such as the USA did not have an extensive colonial legacy and do not have an extensive history yet are considered a superpower

·         Dominant belief system – superpower status can also come in the form of dominant beliefs for example the US is predominantly a Christian country with much influence over the rest of the world through missionaries influencing world religion. Religion is not the only form of dominant belief, capitalism is wide spread and hegemon in the world, capitalism and communism are a dichotomy; therefore there are conflicting regions of the world in which each belief system is dominant. Russia, during Soviet Union years looked to spread the belief in communism to the East and South easterly however capitalism was promoted by the worlds largest superpower the US and with help from aid and investment was spread into South Korea and Japan which stifled the expansion of communism

Old superpowers

The world has changed dramatically in the last 70 years with the fall of the British Empire, collapse of communism and subsequent break up of the USSR. Previously the concept of superpower status regarded the British Empire, USA and the Soviet Union, however after these world changing incidents, superpower status has become more wide spread and more ambiguous. For instance, the emergence of the Asian Tigers has led many writers to assume these countries will be economically worthy of superpower status, whilst the rise of the BRIC countries in terms of trade and establishment on the world stage has created uncertainty over who are today’s superpowers. Whilst the UK may still be considered an influential country it is perhaps declining in superpower status as other countries begin to rise in global influence. The world is likely to change and progress substantially in the next 70 years also, as the BRIC’s, MINT’s (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey) and various other countries establish their place globally in their own rights.

The British Empire was an imperialist system, the USA is a capitalist system and the USSR was a communist system. In the Cold War era 1945-90 the world was bi-polar with two major superpowers The USA and USSR. The USSR created a strong core by invading or allying itself with its surrounding countries (Mackinder Heartland theory).

The USA has allies in the form of Western Europe through NATO, Japan and South Korea through military and investment ties, Africa and Asian countries through military and aid. The USSR had allies with Eastern Europe, other socialist states such as Cuba and Africa and Asian countries through military particularly Somalia.

They both had strong militaries and intelligence agencies the CIA (US) and KGB (USSR), both countries had nuclear weapons as a threat. The US grew its cultural influence through popular culture via film, tv, music conveying the American Dream and idealistic view of capitalism, a lack of censorship meant negative views of America could be transmitted however America was promoting a free country and freedom of the press. The USSR tried to sell itself as a country of high culture such as ballet, music and art, Russian ballet is renowned in the world. There was tight censorship allowing no criticism.

The Cold War did not entail military action between the two superpowers but was more of an ideological battle, however various events created moments of high tension such as the Vietnam war, Korean war, Berlin wall, Cuban missile crisis.

Other forms of superpowers:

Organisations and economic groupings can also be considered Superpowers despite the fact they are not single countries. For example OPEC may be the leading superpower in terms of natural resources such as oil however with the expansion of Russian energy and new technologies such as shale gas, this influence and power may be declining. The UN is the global superpower in a sense that it often has access to many countries in the world, it is used to neutralise military power from its 5 permanent member states and has control and responsibility for millions of refugees in a sense its population is large. The EU can be considered a superpower as with 27 members it is the largest economic grouping and takes a substantial portion of the worlds global GDP, it has influence over its members with common laws, a supposedly common currency and free trade. Other forms of superpower could be considered in modern day world to be TNC’s, many TNC’s have more power and influence than many LEDC’s, they possess the power to locate where they choose and leave when they choose, they possess huge amounts of wealth and are often involved in the arms trade meaning their influence is not isolated to economics. TNC’s have also shown the ability to dictate which countries develop into emerging superpowers and which ones stay as inferior, for example TNC’s have chosen or been tempted by governments to invest in Asian countries and neglected Africa, meaning money, manufacturing, TNC status have all helped boost Asian countries whilst Africa has lost out.

Neo-colonialism refers to the indirect control from former empires on former colonies, neo-colonialism is argued to keep countries in a state of dependency through TNC’s and wage labour, natural resource extraction and cash crop farming, through cultural imperialism and through aid which causes a country to become in debted to the giving country. Another way of keeping a country inferior is the patenting of technology and medical advances which incur a royalty fee to use, this means much technology is unavailable to poor countries stunting their growth and keeping them underdeveloped.