Superpower


A superpower is a state with the ability to influence events or project
power on a wide scale. In modern terms, this may imply an entity with a
strong economy, a large population, and strong armed forces, including air
power and satellite capabilities, and a huge arsenal of weapons of mass
destruction. Superpowers often have colonies, or satellite states.

The term superpower appeared as a neologism in 1922. Prior to the start of
World War Two, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, the United
States, and the United Kingdom had superpower status.

After 1945 the victor powers—China, France, the United Kingdom, the
Soviet Union and the United States of America—appointed themselves to
honorary superpower status as permanent veto-holding members of the United
Nations Security Council. But due to economic stresses, the loss of overseas
colonial empires and civil war, not all of these states could maintain their
relative hegemony, and as the Cold War developed only two indisputable
superpowers remained: the United States and the Soviet Union. With the
political collapse of the Soviet Union (circa 1991) and the undermining of
the balance of power, the United States became apparently the world's sole
remaining superpower (sometimes called a hyperpower).

Although the term superpower is a recent one, the word has been
retrospectively applied to previous military powers. In particular, the
Roman Empire is often described as the superpower of its era.

America's position as the sole superpower

Critics of the United States describe the current state of affairs as the
Pax Americana, with the United States as self-claimed guarantor of world
peace. Harsher critics say that America is acting as an imperialist nation,
despite its protests to the contrary.

This is in contrast to its position of isolationism with respect to global
affairs outside the Western Hemisphere at various times in the first half of
the 20th century, particularly between the World Wars.

American entanglement abroad

America's position as a superpower has involved it in almost every major
conflict world-wide since 1917, including in the Middle East and Kashmir.

Defenders of American foreign policy regard their interventions as forced on
them by moral necessity or lately as self-defence. They generally see world
affairs in moral terms, with "good guys" and "bad guys", rather than in
terms of realpolitik and moral equivalence.

America was attacked by the Islamist terrorist network Al-Qaida in 2001, and
is now fighting a "War on Terrorism" world-wide. America in early 2003
invaded Iraq and dismantled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Superpowers and asymmetric warfare

Whilst a superpower is in a position to win any all-out war against a lesser
power, it is less able to fight an asymmetric war against a weaker opponent
that is willing to use terrorist tactics. In this case, the extensive
civilian, industrial and military assets of the superpower provide a wide
range of targets to an enemy which is willing to attack from hiding without
notice.

Military strategists have anticipated this situation for many years, but
effective measures against asymmetric warfare have been hard to construct.

   * Traditional military methods have little effect, as terrorists can hide
     among the civilian population.
   * Democratic powers may exhibit reluctance to use weapons of mass
     destruction.
   * Police tactics are only likely to succeed with the co-operation of the
     community from which the terrorists come - and heavy-handed police or
     military behavior will tend to radicalize host communities, increasing
     support for terrorists.

Potential superpowers

Countries that could become superpowers in the coming decades include:

   * The growing European Union, which is of comparable economic strength
     and has nuclear capabilities (France and the United Kingdom), but is
     still too fragmented to be considered a single power
   * Russia, the most powerful of the countries of the former Soviet Union,
     maintains a huge nuclear arsenal
   * China, which currently only has a small nuclear deterrent, but the
     world's largest army, and a large population
   * India, which has a population of over a billion, and a small nuclear
     arsenal
   * Worldwide public opinion has been described as a Second Superpower.

The Hearst doctrine of the National Security Strategy of the United States
states that "our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential
adversaries from pursuing a military buildup in hopes of surpassing, or
equaling, the power of the United States".