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Geography > Global Superpowers > Flashcards

Global Superpowers Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a superpower?

A
  • A nation with the ability to project its influence anywhere in the world and be a dominant global force.
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2
Q

What is a hyperpower?

A
  • An unchallenged superpower that is dominant in all aspects of power (political, economic, cultural, military); examples include the USA from 1990 to 2010 and Britain from 1850 to 1910.
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3
Q

What is an emerging superpower?

A
  • Emerging superpowers are those nations
    whose economic, military and political influence is already large and is growing.
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4
Q

What is a regional superpower?

A
  • growing. Regional powers are smaller. They influence other countries at a continental scale – a good example is South Africa within Africa.
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5
Q

What are ‘pillars of power’?

A
  • Superpower status depends on what might be called pillars of power. Some nations, such as the USA, have all of these pillars of power, whereas other nations are strong in some types of power but weaker in others.
  • Only when a country has all of the pillars can they be a superpower
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6
Q

What is the economic pillar of power?

A
  • Economic power: this represents the ‘base’ of the temple and is a prerequisite of power. A large and powerful economy gives nations the wealth to build and maintain a powerful military, exploit natural resources and develop human ones through education.
  • An example of this is China having the largest amount of exports in 2023 worth 82,322 billion
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7
Q

What is the military pillar of power?

A
  • Military power: this is used in two ways firstly, the threat of military action is a powerful bargaining chip
  • Secondly, 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.
  • For example, USA spending 1.94 trillion on the department of defence
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8
Q

What is the cultural pillar of power?

A
  • Cultural power includes how appealing a nation’s way of life, values and ideology are to others, and is often exercised through film, the arts and food.
  • An example of this is the cultural diffusion of American companies like McDonalds to Asia changing the diet.
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9
Q

What is the access to natural resources pillar of power?

A
  • Resources can be in the form of physical resources (fossil fuels, minerals, land) but also human resources.
  • An example of this is Venezuela having the highest world share of oil with 18.2%

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10
Q

What is the demographic pillar of power?

A
  • Includes the level of education and skills in a nation, but also the sheer numbers of people
  • For example, South Korea having the highest literacy rate of 97.9%
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11
Q

What is the political pillar of power?

A
  • 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 Organisation.
  • An example of this is the Veto power Russia, UK, USA, China and Russia have in the UN security council
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12
Q

What the contemporary superpowers and their weaknesses?

A
  • China, has a lack of political and cultural influence
  • the EU, Weakened because its made up of 27 countries and won’t always agree.
  • The US, no obvious weakness
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13
Q

What is soft power?

A
  • Soft power is the power of persuasion. Some countries are able to make others follow their lead by making policies
    attractive and appealing.
  • The cultural attractiveness of
    some nations, making it more
    likely that others will follow
    their lead
  • The values and ideology of some
    nations being seen as appealing
  • The moral authority of a nation’s
    foreign policy
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14
Q

What is hard power?

A
  • Military action and conquest, or
    the threat of it
  • The creation of alliances, both
    economic and military, to
    marginalise some nations
  • The use of economic sanctions to
    damage a nation’s economy
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15
Q

Why is both a mix of hard and soft power important?

A
  • Invasions, war and conflict are very blunt instruments. They often do not go as planned and fail to achieve the aims of
    those exercising hard power.
  • Soft power alone may not persuade one nation to do as another says, especially if they are culturally and ideologically
    very different.
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16
Q

How has the trend of Hard and Soft power changed over time?

A
  • hard power has become less important and soft power more important over time. During the colonial and imperial era, from 1600 to 1950, powerful countries conquered and controlled territory by military force. Armed forces were often
    positioned across the world in a way akin to a global game of chess. This approach was influenced by early geo-strategic thinking.
17
Q

What is the Mackinder theory?

A
  • In 1904 Halford Mackinder, a British geographer, identified a region of Eurasia he named the ‘Heartland’.
  • This continental land area, protected by invasion from the sea, stretched from Russia to China and from the Himalayas to the Arctic. Mackinder argued that the Heartland was the key geo-strategic location in the world because control of it commanded a huge portion of the world’s physical and human resources.
18
Q

How was Mackinder’s theory influential?

A

It contributed to policies of containment including

  • Attempts, after the First World War, to limit the ability of Germany to expand the land area it controlled.
  • The post-Second World War NATO allies’ attempts to contain the Soviet Union from expanding into western and southern Europe.
  • The American ‘Truman Doctrine’ policy of the 1940s and 1950s to contain the spread of communism from the Soviet Union and China.
19
Q

What are some examples of the contemporary use of hard power?

A
  • The Gulf War (1990–91), the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by US-led forces and the American-led war in Afghanistan (2001–14) all involved hard power to achieve aims by force.
  • The Russian annexation of Crimea in Ukraine in 2013, and the subsequent economic sanctions imposed on Russia in response by the EU, USA and other nations, are recent examples of hard power.
20
Q

What different types of polarities can geopolitics form?

A
  • Unipolar, a world dominated by one power such as the US or the British empire in the 1850’s
  • Bipolar, world dominated by two powers such as the US and the USSR during the cold war 1949-1991
  • Multipolar, multiple countries fight for power in different regions
21
Q

What was the height of unipolar geopolitics?

A
  • The high point of superpower polarity, it could be argued, was the British Empire. Britain, a relatively small country, managed to maintain a global empire
  • By 1920, ruled over twenty per cent of the world’s population and 25 per cent of its land area (Figure 7.4).
  • The Royal Navy dominated the world’s oceans during this period, protecting the colonies and the trade routes between them and Britain. In 1914, Britain’s navy was about twice as large as the next largest, that of Germany.
22
Q

What is an example of how colonies are controlled directly?

A

Colonial India

  • British military, Entrepreneurs and civil servants migrated to India
  • English speaking, European dressing Indians occupied low administrative positions
  • Symbols of imperial power such as British leaders living in India demonstrated their wealth
  • Acculturation, The British language, Cricket and afternoon tea were all introduced to India
  • Social order maintained a difference between Indian people and White people
  • India was modernised with 61k Km of railroads by 1920 allowing transport of goods for exporting and the moving of troops to put down any rebellion
23
Q

What is an example of multipolar geopolitics?

A

The period of 1919-193 in between the two world wars

  • Germany had become more powerful during the 1930’s gearing up for the 2nd world war
  • Imperial Japan increased its power in Asia
  • The USA became militarily and economically more powerful challenging Britain
  • European countries still strong but weakened due to having to maintain empires
24
Q

What is an example of a bi-polar era and what caused it?

A
  • The rise of the USSR and the USA after the 2nd world war, aka the cold war
  • The end of the 2nd world war and the years following contained the downfall of many empires as the war left countries to bankrupt to maintain them.
  • Focus on reconstruction meant colonies were viewed as less important
  • Anti-colonial movements like the ones in India became stronger and demands for independence could not be ignored
25
Q

How does the cold war represent a mix of both hard and soft power?

A

Involved a series of proxy wars where the USSR and USA never fought directly but supported countries in proxy wars including:

  • The 1950–3 Korean War, which led to the division of Korea into US-backed South Korea and Chinese/ Russian-backed North Korea

-The 1955–75 Vietnam War, fought directly by the USA but indirectly by communist China with some weaponry from the USSR

  • The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the closest the USSR and USA got to direct conflict during the Cold War.
26
Q

What is neo-colonialism?

A
  • When a country that has gained independence is controlled by another country indirectly through strategic alliances, aid, TNC investment, Terms of trade and debt.
27
Q

What are some negatives of neo-colonialism

A

Neo colonial Relationships often propped up corrupt, anti-democratic and violent regimes

  • President Mobutu in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
    from 1965 to 1997 supported by the USA,
  • President Mengistu in Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991 supported by the USSR.
28
Q

What is hegemony?

A
  • Used to describe the dominance of a superpower over other countries
  • Such includes the USA’s dominance over military spending which is bigger then the next 9 combined
  • Can also be cultural such as Gramsci’s study of Mussolini and his indoctrination of the Italian nation through education systems, religion, art forms and media
  • Examples of cultural dominance include the USA’s culture of fast food, Disney , News outlets etc.
29
Q

What was the trend of economic shares in 2014?

A
  • USA and UK had 46% of the world’s economy
  • China’s at US$10.3 trillion, represented only 13.3 per cent of global GDP
  • The next largest, Japan, only six percent
30
Q

What factors make it so that the future has a higher chance of being multipolarised?

A
  • The EU and Japan have ageing populations which will slow economic growth
  • USA’s population and economic growth is predicted to be moderate not rapid

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31
Q
A

Geography (16 decks)

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