Power & Development

Question 1

Hard power example - Hard power example - Russia

Answer 1

2014 Annexation of Crimea

2022 Invasion of Ukraine

Question 2

Hard power example - Kuwait

Answer 2

1991 Military power susccesfully deployed to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait by the US, and then military air power was successfully used to maintain safe havens within Iraq

Operation Desert Sabre

Question 3

Hard power example - Kosovo

Answer 3

1999 Nato used military power to stop Serbian ethnic cleansing in Kosovo

Question 4

Hard power example - Trump

Answer 4

2017 Used 59 American tomohawk cruise missiles against Syria following their gas attack on civilians. Used to deter any further chemical attack by President Assad since he would understand the consequences

Question 5

Hard power failing examples

Answer 5

Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan

Question 6

Soft power example - Covid

Answer 6

2020 China provided free access to its perimental Covid 19 vaccine in the Arab world and Brazi. This ‘vaccine diplomacy’ contrasted with the ‘vaccine nationalism’ of the Trump Administration

Question 7

Soft power example - Panda diplomacy

Answer 7

Used by China to show favour or disappointment to other nations. Good-loan pandas. Bad-revoke panda privileges. China sometimes sends out pandas to distract from events.

E.g 2017 Two pandas loaned to Germany for 15 years at a cost of $1m/year. merkel professed that this event is symbolic of relations of our two countries

E.g 2023 China refused to renew the lease on three pandas in the US, possibly because of tensions in Taiwan

Question 8

Soft Power example - British Council

Answer 8

Promotes British education and culture through its offices around the world, helping Britain to develop and maintain connections with other nations

Question 9

Smart power example - Afghanistan

Answer 9

Hard power - remove the taliban
Soft power - keep the nation running in the absence of a coherent government

Ineffective: following withdrawl on US troops in 2021, Taliban seized power within 11 days

Question 10

Soft power example - USA + China

Answer 10

Meetings held between heads of state.
E.g November 2023, Biden and XI Jing Ping met and agreed to reestablish a permanent line of communications between their two militaries, reducing tensions

Question 11

Arguments Against USA being a declining superpower

Answer 11

1. Us military power and outreach is unrivaled
   E.g 2022 $858 billion spent on military
2. 2022 USA Top in world of soft power influence
3. Despite blunders remains dominant outside influence in middle east
   E.g strong presence in Saudi Arabia

Question 12

Smart power example - EU

Answer 12

Eu has masive economic hard power and used this to negotiate free trade deals with Japan and China

Question 13

Arguments For USA being a declining superpower

Answer 13

1. US economic dominance is being challenged by China which has a higher GDP PPP, and is projected to have a greater GDP than the US by 2035
   (purchasing power parity)
2. Since 2001 and the war on terror, the USA has failed to secure Iraq and Afghanistan, showing its declining military effectiveness
3. Under Obama and Trump, the USA was less committed to sending forces into new conflicts reducing their role as a global policeman

Question 14

Wolf Warrior Diplomacy Example Wu Ken

Answer 14

Ambassador to Germany (Wu Ken) threatened to undercut the German car industry following considerations for tightening restrictions over Huawei

Question 14

China military spending increase

Answer 14

2009 - $70 bn
2016 - $150 bn

Question 15

Unipolarity - Implications

Answer 15

Leads to conflict and destabilisation if the hegemon oversteps itself and ignores international law in the pursuit of its objectives it can generate hostility and resentment
E.g 9/11 partly motivated by US support for Saudi Royal Family

Dominance of hegemon seen to be waning it can encourage other staes to enter conflict with it
E.g Germany seeking to challenge British dominance pre-WW1

Question 16

Unipolarity - Benefit

Answer 16

Encourages peace and stability as no aspiring power wants to risk conflict with the hegemon and may even begin to emulate it by sharing its values

E.g Pax Romana and the 1990s following the collapse of the USSR when the USA was unchallenged on the international stage

Question 17

Bipolarity - Implications

Answer 17

Cold war showed USSR and USA were continually trying to gain military superiority over each other

E.g Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrates how this rivalry between powers could have led to war.

Also leads to proxy wars e.g. Vietnam and Korea

Question 18

Bipolarity - Benefit

Answer 18

Provides powerful incentives for both sides to avoid war as it would be too costly for either to enter into - provides equilibrium according to Waltz

Question 19

Multipolarity - Implications

Answer 19

Can create instability as there are more players on the international stage forming complex alliances and trying to secure their own interests
-ever present potential for conflict

Question 20

Multipolarity - Benefit

Answer 20

If states cooperate they can potentially acheive stability by resolving issues with peaceful means or collective action

E.g the European powers alying in order to defeat Napolean, and in the Congress of Vienna following the Napoleonic wars they established a congess system to try and preserve European peace.

E.g After second world war arguable there was a multipolar structure between Great Britain, germany, France, Soviet Union, Japan and Italy

Question 21

US as Hegemon Examples

Answer 21

2021 (1st) Military spending - $753.5bn
-compared to (2nd) China - $209bn

Possesses 800 military bases across the world

Question 22

Balance of world power change: China - Geo-strategic influence

Answer 22

China is expanding its geo-strategic influence over neighbouring countries
E.g since 2020 China asserted greater domestic control over Hong kong and deployed increasingly hostile rhetoric towards taiwan

Question 23

Balance of world power change: China - Military installations

Answer 23

China is building military installations on artificial islands in the South China Sea in defiance of regional and international condemnation

Question 24

Balance of world power change: Russia - Influence in Europe

Answer 24

Beginning to reassert influence in Europre

E.g Going to war with Goergia in 2008, Annexing Crimea 2014 and Invading Ukraine in 2022

Question 25

Balance of world power change: USA - Afghanistan & Iraq

Answer 25

As a result of bloody interventions in Afghan and Iraq. Obama Administration failed to provide effective leadership during the Arab uprisings, and stepped back from global leadership

2021 Biden announced ‘America is back’ however suffered a humiliating evacuation of Afghan in 2021, so the question of where the US will be able to reclaim global pre-eminence is open to debate

Question 26

Democratic state

Answer 26

State in which the government is freely elected by the public through universal suffrage and in which the government is held accountable for its actions through regular and fair elections
E.g UK

Question 27

Semi-democratic state

Answer 27

Combines elements of democracy with authoritarianism, e.g although there may be regular elections, some parties may be banned and the media may be censored.
E.g 1982 Argentina military junta invaded the falklands in order to win easy political populairty

Question 28

Autocratic state

Answer 28

Places unlimited power in the hands of an unelected leadership that is not accoutnable ot its citizens an autocratic state will therefore not possess democratic legitimacy

Question 29

Rogue State

Answer 29

Authoritarian state that acts in defiance of globally accepted standards of itnernational law. By doing this it encourages both regional and global instability

E.g North Korea

Question 30

Failed state

Answer 30

A state where the government has disintegrated, so creating a power vaccuum. The resulting anarchy and violence will threaten its neighbours and, potentially, the wider global community.

E.g Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan