Superpowers Case Studies Flashcards
Joseph Nye criticism of China’s soft power
“Despite spending billions of dollars to increase its soft power…China has had limited return on its investment”
Problem with Confucius Institute and China Public Diplomacy Association
Soft power accrues when civil society actors do things with global appeal, not top down schemes interpretted as propaganda by foreigners
Combined economic strength of BRIC nations
nearly $18 000 billion in 2010
Proportion of world population taken up by BRIC nations
40%
World land area of BRIC countries
25%
Foreign currency reserves in BRIC nations
40% of world total
1/6 of foreign reserves of all BRIC nations combined would have the same value as the IMF
Positive political aspects of BRIC nations
3/4 are nuclear powers (Not Brazil)
2 have seats on the UN Security Council (Russia and China)
Problems which may hinder China’s superpower status
Some critics claim China has little regard for human rights and democracy
Possibility of conflict over Taiwan and Hong Kong
Aging population crisis
Huge CO2 emissions due to rapid industrialisation
Problems which may hinder Russia’s superpower status
Re-emergence has been largely facilitated by oil and gas demand- which is not a sustainable source of income
Russia has a negative population dividend- shrinking and aging population
Breakup of Soviet Union caused collapse of health and communist welfare system- falling life expectancy and rising poverty
Problems which may hinder India’s superpower status
Problems with Pakistan and Kashmir Number one in terms of population poverty Duel economy Infrastructure problems The caste system
Problems which may hinder Brazil’s superpower status
Experienced huge debt levels in 1980s
Recovery only very recent with huge trade surpluses and liquidation of foreign debt
Japan’s preconditions for superpower status
Higher GDP per capital than UK and USA in 1980s
World leader in exporting consumer electronics, ICT, cars and industrial machinary
Why is Japan not an established superpower
Property value suddenly dropped in 1989, initiating the collapse of Japanese stock markets
4-6% interest rates encourages saving over spending, slowing the economy
Aging population
Stagnation of market due to more competative industry in South Korea and China
Economic power in South Korea (Positives)
Diversified economy, 15th largest in the world
Highly competative manufacturing and industrial bases
Negative factor in South Korean economy
Dependancy on exports leaves them vunerable to external shocks
Banking system relies on offshore funding
South Korean political stability
Korean War ended in 1953 without formal peace treaty and north korea’s behaviour is often aggressive and erratic
Strong internal democratic systems
Military in South Korea
One of the largest standing armies in the world-
3 700 000 reported personel
10th largest defence budget in the world
mandetory conscription for male citezens aged 18+
Environment in South Korea
Rapid reduction in biodiverity of larger mammals due to spread of urbanisation
9th largest carbon emmiter in the world
$193 billion invested in renewable energy research in 2008
Problems with the WTO (Superpowers)
Decisions made by mutual agreement and thus often favours the EU and USA
Forced removal of farming subsidies undercut national farmers because import was then cheaper
Africa forced to give up 90% of tariffs on their trade with the EU because no clear rules existed to protect them- rule ambiguities make it wasy to manipulate developing nations
Problems wirh IMF (Superpowers)
Individual voting rights are proportional to the amount nations invest into the fund- cycle of exponential benefit for rich countries
Top 10 countries control 60% og total IMF voting rights
Problems with WEF (Superpowers)
Primarily capitalist countries
National voter instincts conflict with globalised ideas of WEF favouring their own selfish national agendas
Global TNC- profits
in 2014, world’s 500 largest companies made $1.7 trillion in profit
Global TNC employment
Top 500 largest employed 65 million people
1994 Rwandan Genocide and the UN
800 000 people (ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus) likes by Hutus extremists
Red Cross reported 10s of thousands dead
UN Security Council declared it as an act of genocide
NO MILITARY REINFORCEMENTS SENT
UN and 2002 Iraq War
Resolution 1441 passed by council demanded Iraq disarm and cooperate with weapons inspectors
US/UK assert that 1441 allowed military action - France and Russia disagreed
France threaten to veto a new resolution allowing war
US and UK did it without Security Council approval- little to no repercussion
Haiti earthquake humanitarian relief effort in 2010
Magnitude 7
US Air Force restores air traffic to Port-au-Prince airport to allow aid transport
US Coastguard helicopters began relied flights
1600 marines deployed to help
Superpower response to Bosnian war (1992-5)
Break up of Yugoslavia UN resolution make NATO enforced no fly zone UN Peacekeepers establishes safe zones NATO naval blockade in the Adriatic NATO air strikes
EU commitments to the Paris Agreement
In 2015 greenhouse gas emissions reduced by 22% since 1990
EU renewable energy use 16%
Russian response to Paris Agreement
Heavily rely on carbon sink of Russian forest to reach emission targets
Technically already 35% below 1990 levels before signing agreement because of economic crash- allowing them to increase
Aggressively targeting arctic territories for oil
China response to Paris Agreement
Agreed to stop upward trend in emission by 2030
Reduced emissions by 5% in a few months in 2015
World leader in renewables
What is the belt and road (belton road) initiative
‘New silk road’
170 agreements with 125 countries
Worth $90 billion in Chinese investment and totslling $8 trillion in Chinese spending
Examples of malpractise in the New Silk Road
Critics see project as mode to generate unsustainable debt in countries which are smaller and more vunerable to project failure
China takes possession of a port in Sri Lanka for 99 years after the Sri Lankan government could pay infrastructural debt
Ethiopian railway protests because the track is unfenced and resulting in the death of livestock and people
Religion in China
Poor western provinces with over 1 million muslims detained- fear of terrorism and seperatism
How China is exploiting their international partners
Exploitation of natural resources ie: coal
Emissions are not attributed to China because they are not produced IN China
