What Are Superpowers:
- A dominant global force in terms of culture, military and economic & political influence.
- Superpowers: USA, EU. Emerging Superpowers: China, Russia & India. Regional Power: Brazil, Japan, Gulf States, Mexico and South Africa.
- They have the ability to affect and control world affairs. When one exists it is called a ‘hyperpower’ such as the USA from 1990-2018*.
- Emerging superpowers have a growing economic and military presence but are not quite there yet such as China in 2017.
- Dominance of superpower over other countries can be described with the word: Hegemony.
Depends
on Five Factors:
- Economic Power: Most important, wealth to develop technology, exploit resources, education improvements and build up a large military.
- Military Power: Either the threat or actual force used to achieve geopolitical goals e.g Navy.
- Political Power: Influencing other countries through diplomacy e.g UN, WTO, EU
- Cultural Power: Appeal of a country’s way of life (ideology) and includes media, food and language.
- Resources: Includes physical resources e.g Fossil Fuels and human resources (skills and education)
Maintaining
Power – Hard & Soft Power:
Hard:
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Soft:
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Direct, force, make, top-down, linear.
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Indirect, charm, let, bottom-up, non-linear |
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Drone strikes by the USA in Iraq |
McDonalds “charm” in other countries.
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- Hard power is using force to do something e.g USA’s military action in Iraq.
- Soft power is the use of charm and persuasion to get people to like, follow and support you such as Americanisation.
- Size of influence is known as the “sphere of influence”. USA has a global sphere of influence.
- Soft power creates followers and allies but hard power is difficult to get right.
- Soft power is becoming more important, British Empire used a lot of hard power but today, soft power is less dangerous and effective. Diplomacy is important and can make a country gain lots of followers.
- Heartland Theory (Geo-strategic location theory): A country that hasn’t been invaded due to huge physical geography.
- Hard power creates enemies, problems and cost.
The
Geography of Power:
- “size is not everything”. Demographic superpowers have little economic power
- Military spending is one form of power as it allows superpowers to have a global military reach.
- USA is highly influence in terms of economic, military, geopolitical and cultural terms.
- Has largest GDP ($18 Billion), good ally, spends $600 billion on military, large population, attractive lifestyle.
- SP status change over time. Military was important a long time ago but not economy, politics and culture are increasingly important e.g soft power from the USA.