Power and development

Question 1

What is hard power?

Answer 1

-Use of military and economic means to influence the behaviour or interests of other political bodies.

Question 2

What is soft power?

Answer 2

-Soft power is based on attraction and identification, sharing common values and ideas or ‘cultural power’.

Question 3

How is the EU an example of leading soft power?

Answer 3

• The creation of the single market makes the EU an attractive market place.
• European countries want to take advantage of the benefits of the single-market so will likely follow regulations and rules set by EU in order to gain access to the EU free-market.

Question 4

What is an example of soft power being used by the EU in order to establish peace?

Compare this to a hard power approach.

Answer 4

• The EU began negotiations with Iran in 2013 for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspector to have access to Iran’s nuclear-weapons programme.
• This led to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, this was signed by the five permanent members of the UNSC plus Germany, the EU and Iran.
• The EU were successful in reaching consensus with Iran over their nuclear weapons programme, something the US had failed to do by solely through sanctions and breaking off diplomatic relations.

Question 5

What was the increase of military spending by China from 2009 to 2016?

Answer 5

• In 2009 military spending was about $70 billion.

- In 2016 military spending was $150 billion.

Question 6

What is an example of sanctions imposed on Russia following invasion of Ukraine?

(EU)

Answer 6

• The EU stated it would stop the import of oil from Russia that arrived via the sea. Effectively reducing the level of oil imported by the EU from Russia to 11%.
• Similarly the US banned all Russian oil and gas imports from Russia.

Question 7

What is the GDP of the US in 2022?

Answer 7

-$21 trillion dollars.

Question 8

What is the GDP of the EU?

Answer 8

-$18 trillion

Question 9

How has China increased its strategic influence across the region of Africa?

Answer 9

-In 2018 Beijing pledged $60 billion for African development which was aimed at strengthening Sino-African relations.

Question 10

How does the Arab Spring show the limits of soft power?

Answer 10

-Initially influenced liberal democratic values.

However the use of soft-power was deemed limited when President el-Sisi used military force to re-establish authoritarian rule in Egypt.

Question 11

Explain the limits of hard power in reference to Afghanistan.

Answer 11

• The US had forces in Afghanistan for 20 years and on paper were able to control the threats from extremist groups.
• However when the US left it took the Taliban only 10 days to sweep across the country and reassert its dominance.
• The US were ineffective at keeping peace and this shows the limits of hard power. Estimated $2.3 trillion was spent in total in Afghanistan.

Question 12

What percent of the population do BRIC states make up?

-What percent of GDP?

Answer 12

• 1/2 of the population

- 75% of GDP.

Question 13

What percent of military spending comes from the US?

Answer 13

-36% of military spending

Question 14

What number of countries signed the UN agreement to get Trump to retract message of Jerusalem as head of Israel?

What was this despite?

Answer 14

• 178 countries signed.

- Despite Trump threatening to cut funding of UN.