Superpowers Flashcards
1
Q
What does geopolitical power of a country depend on?
A
- areal extent of power - global influence, regional power is a leading country on a continental scale, an emerging power has global influence in some areas (political)
- nature of power - economic power, military power, political power, cultural power, resources
2
Q
How can powerful countries exert their power?
A
- hard power - economic or/and military strength
- soft power - more subtle and gradual - cultural projects
3
Q
Key points about change over time
A
- the relative power of nations has changed over time and so has the importance of nature of the mechanism being used
- in the 19th and 20th centuries UK, France and Germany were more dominant and hard power was effective
4
Q
H.J Mackinder…..
A
- identified a centeral region of eurasia that was known as the heartland
- he argued it was the key geo strategic location in the world because control commanded a huge portion of worlds physical and human resources
- his theory was influential as it contributed to policies of containment - eg - after WW1 = limit land controlled by Germany
5
Q
Recent trends key points (soft/hard power)
A
- in 21st century soft power been more dominant
- some recent examples of hard power - eg - Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine (crimea) - being led by USA and Russia
6
Q
Key points of imperial power
A
- several european powers each had an empire until end of WW2
- empires depended on - powerful navy for transport of troops and equipment - large armies - government backed businesses - large merchant navy
- colonialism ruled the territories - efficient civil service was key
7
Q
What did a multipolar world create?
A
- conflict between opposing empires - eg - Britain and Germany in WW2 and WW1
- tensions where people of the colonies sought independence from acts of brutal supression against them
8
Q
Since end of WW2 empires have gone and there are now indirect mechanisms of power…..
A
- economic - trade blocs
- political - UN and other groups like G7/8 and G20
- military - joining of military arms of countries - eg - NATO
- cultural - considered influential - eg - westernisation
9
Q
How do western nations exert neocolonialism over other countries?
A
- continuing to import low value commodities from developing nations
- continuing to export high value manafactured goods to developing nations
- enabling financial situations such that developing nations are indebted to western nations
- encouraging the migration of skilled people away from developing nations
10
Q
Why do people think China is rivalling the USA’s hegemony?
A
- say China is adopting neocolonial practises in some African countries
- China however states its seeking to help develop these nations and has little global ambition
11
Q
Key points about stability and risk
A
- a unipolar world is dominated by one superpower - eg - British Empire
- a bipolar world is where 2 superpowers have different ideologies
- a multipolar world is more complex - many superpowers and emerging powers competing for power
12
Q
Key points about emerging powers
A
- the BRICs countries - brazil, russia, india, china and south africa
- other members of the G20 - account for 85% of global GDP
13
Q
How are the emerging powers exerting influence?
A
- demanding more influence on bodies like the UN
- being at the heart of financial institutions - eg - WTO
- involved in global environment governance - eg - the UN climate change conferences
- playing a role in peacekeeping missions and disaster response
14
Q
Worlds systems theory
A
- stresses that development should be viewed in a global economic context rather than individual countries
- expansion of global capitalist economies in the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in 3 economic development categories; core regions (OECD countries), semi periphery regions (emerging powers) and periphery regions (rest of developing world)
- core uses semi periphery as cheap location for manafacturing and services
- core gains large returns on its foreign investments
- periphery provides raw materials
15
Q
Dependency theory
A
- periphery countries provide a range of services to core countries
- developed countries control growth of developing nations by setting prices paid for commodities through WB or IMF
- keeping countries underdeveloped reduces number of potential rival emerging powers
- wealthy elites benefit from dependency relationship because they control limited trade in goods
16
Q
Modernisation theory
A
- 5 stages
- traditional society - subsistence economy based mainly on farming with limited technology
- preconditions for take off - investment that allows agriculture to be more commercialised
- take off - manafacturing industries grow rapidly with growth being concentrated in one or two areas
- drive to maturity - period of self sustaining growth; economic growth spreads to all parts of the country
- age of mass consumption - period of rapid expansion of service industries with decline in manafacturing
17
Q
How do some superpowers and IGOs influence the global economy
A
- promoting free trade
- operating under doctrine of capitalism
- enabling business to be dominated by private enterprises
- encouraging wealth creation; for businesses and individuals
18
Q
Key points of TNCs
A
- important drivers of the global economy and dominate international trade
- can be publicly owned or state led
- invest heavily in new technologies and patents which allows efficient operating
19
Q
What are the 2 types of trading patterns?
A
- vertical integration - where a supply chain of a company is owned entirely by that company
- horizontal integration - where a company diversifies its operations by expansion, merger or takeover
20
Q
Key points of cultural influences
A
- TNCs have a major cultural impact on global consumers - can be measured using concept of brand value
- current dominance of USA led some people to identify increasing cultural globalisation
- its difficult to identify exactly what this global culture is but some characteristics are; consumerism, capitalism, english being dominant language, common values regarding dress, diet etc, gender equality and adapting and absorbing selective parts of other cultures
21
Q
Key points of alliances
A
- a number of alliances between nations have been established
- their broad aims are to increase interdependence between nations and to have global geo strategic influence
22
Q
The UN key points
A
- 193 countries and headquaters in USA - New York
- states only through international cooperation can we meet challenges facing the world
- operates through applying principles of its charter
- main authority in maintaining peace and stability is security council
- does not maintain its own military
- aims to protect human rights through the UDHR
- applies economic or diplomatic sanctions to make countries change behaviour
- established the IPCC - climate change and other conferences - COP21 Paris (2015)
23
Q
Resource demands key points
A
- superpowers make huge demands for food, fossil fuels and minerals
- these demands are causing severe environmental degradation
- for example - carbon emissions are coming disproportionately from superpower nations with impacts on climate change
24
Q
Environmental governance - combating climate change
A
- a number of UN supported meetings have taken place to attempt to reduce carbon emissions - eg - COP21
- main outcomes of COP21 was to cut Co2 emissions - with different rates and timescales for each country
25
Q
Why are there different opinions between superpowers?
A
- China favours continued economic growth using coal - recent pollution issues (Bejing) - they have to consider other alternatives
- USA has tradition of climate scepticism - views of Trump
- Russia depends largely on exports of oil and gas to western europe
- likely victims of climate change most likely are not superpowers (Africa)
26
Q
Future demand key points
A
- demand for resources isn’t going to decrease - driven by rising populations and wealthiness
- new resources are emerging for which demand is increasing - eg - rare earths
- there is already evidence of resource nationalism - counter to free trade
- extra pressure on waste disposal and the environment
27
Q
Global tensions - physical resources - key points
A
- tensions can arise over the aquisition of physical resources - eg - oil
- ownership may be disputed and disagreement over exploitation may occur
28
Q
Global tensions - what can the tensions include?
A
- invasion and conquest of another nations territory - eg - russia retaking crimea from ukraine
- claiming offshore resources - various claims over sea bed of arctic ocean and building by china of military bases in south china sea
29
Q
What are some of the outcomes of these tensions?
A
- increase in commodity prices
- political unease or rogue states (North korea)
- blockages of and/or restrictions on trading pathways
- intense diplomatic activity at the UN
30
Q
Intellectual property (IP) key points
A
- a global system of IP has been run since 1967 by the WIPO
- it ensures TNCs and others can protect new military hardware, inventions, trademarks etc
- without IP innovations and ideas can be stolen and used by others
31
Q
What are some of the issues related to the IP?
A
- chinese companies are known for infringing IP by producing counterfeit product
- may sour relations between countries
- IP holders don’t have a duty to make a new invention - they could prevent a new medicine being made
- system can create a monopoly where patent holders can charge what they want for a product
32
Q
Changing relationships - developing countries - Key points
A
- developing countries are getting new relationships with emerging powers
- interdependence will increase; there will be opportunities
- china, russia are investing in poorer regions (africa) often as infrastructural projects
33
Q
Example of developing countries and relationships
A
China in Africa;
- angola - loans, secured by access to oil reserves - used to build hospitals etc
- nigeria - took out similar oil backed loans to finance gas fired electricity
- over a million chinese live in africa
34
Q
Key points of asian countries
A
- clear that china and india have rising economic importance
- their geopolitical influence within asian region is immense
- there are economic and political tensions within asia resulting from their dominance
35
Q
Comparison of china and india
A
- india has a more youthful pop than china
- more people in poverty in india
- mortality higher in india
- china has larger military
- china has trade surplus and india has trade deficit
36
Q
Middle Eastern countries key points
A
- been a troublesome area for last 50 years
- the complex web of alliances within the middle east and with the USA and russia make the area unstable
37
Q
What are some of the middle eastern tensions?
A
- hostility towards israel from arab nations
- internal religious diffs in arab nations
- arab spring in 2011 when youth sought greater political involvements
- rise of terrorist groups within region
- civil war in yemen
38
Q
What are some issues that come from world recession?
A
- businesses and banks closed and unemployment increased
- national, bank and personal debt levels rose
- social costs added to existing pressures from an ageing population
- economic restructuring involving deindustrialisation
- increased political pressure
39
Q
Economic costs of maintaining military power globally - UK
A
- 225 nuclear warheads
- will have 2 new aircraft carriers by 2020
- has miniscule expenditure compared to usa
40
Q
The future
A
- population sizes and relative GDP growth rates
- resource use and availability
2030;
- USA could remain dominant hegemon
- china could join usa in bipolar world
- multipolar world could happen - usa china russia and eu acting as superpowers
