What are superpowers Flashcards
Definition of a superpower
A nation with the means to project its power and influence anywhere in the globe and to be a dominant global force
What are the four pillars of superpower status/
Economic - a strong economy allows a country to control trade. It also allows for investment into a powerful military as well as technologies to help exploit resources to increase development. A strong economy may attract countries to loan from you. This gives the country providing the loans indirect control over the indebted countries.
Military - A powerful military allows superpowers to protect their population, territory and access to resources. It may also allow for extension of these through threats or invasion. It can mean powerful countries can intervene to ensure geo-political stability or to remove threats to their ideology.
Political and ideological - Superpowers often influence other countries to follow similar ideologies and doctrines which may be enforced or encouraged through policies.
Cultural - Superpowers often project their own culture on the rest of the world through media, music, food for example. This may influence other countries to adopt similar ideologies to he superpower.
What other factors influence a nation’s ability to achieve superpower status?
Physical resources - This includes energy sources such as oil and gas, valuable minerals food and water (essential to sustain a population). Such resources can be exploited to accelerate development and attain (or maintain) super power status.
Human resources - This includes the size of the population, the age and their skillset. Having a large population allows for more military personnel and a larger workforce. The demographic, in terms of age structure, health and proportion of skilled workers, is therefore also important. A larger population dominated by health, young and skilled workers may create both a strong military and economy.
Types of power
Hard power - the use of coercion through use of threats of military action of economic sanctions. to force a country to act in a particular way
Soft power - this involves the use of persuasion through cultural and political attractiveness. For example, the UK has huge cultural influences on other countries through popular franchises such as Harry potter as well as through its education (with world renowned universities like Oxford and Cambridge).
Smart power - this involves the combination of both hard and soft power. Countries which employ smart power will attempt to influence other countries through soft power. however have the military and economic capacity to issue threats of invasion, or economic sanctions.
How has the use of types of power changed overtime?
Historically, the use of hard power was far more important. This can be seen through the strategies of colonial power and dominance of the British Empire from the late 1500s until the end of the Second World War (where the cost of owning such a large empire was too much following the expenses of the war). There has been a general increase in the use of soft power through diplomacy and attractive political ideologies such as democracy. Despite this hard power is still used in the modern era. For example The US’s invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, s well as the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and invasion of Ukraine in 2022 (as well as the subsequent economic sanctions placed on Russia by the USA and EU)
Outline Mackinder’s Theory (1904)
Mackinder classified the region of Eurasia to be “The Heartland£. he argued that it had huge geo-strategic significance due to the fact that it contained much of the World’s human and physical resources. This influenced policies to limit the ability of Germany top expand its territory after the First World War. as well a containment policies such as the Truman Doctrine and Marshall plan to restrict the spread of communism and limit the power of the USSR.
