Superpowers of the World

10 Key excerpts on "Superpowers of the World"

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  Hegemony

  The New Shape Of Global Power

  • John Agnew(Author)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Temple University Press

    (Publisher)

  6 Through these, rules of conduct, public goods, and structures of expectation are established that orient world politics to certain expected behav-iors rather than others. But political power also strengthens or weakens geographically because the transmission of political power across space involves practices by others that lead to its transformation as it moves from place to place. Political power, therefore, is exercised from sites that vary in their geographical reach. This reach can be hierarchical and network-based as well as territorial or contiguous in application. Sometimes power flows indirectly from one place to another through clients or intermediaries; at other times it short-circuits hierarchies and moves directly. 7 Thus, today localities or regions are seen as interact-ing directly with a global economy without so much of the state-level mediation that once dominated such linkages. The balance between levels in hierarchies of power determines the spatiality (or geographical configuration) of political power at any given time. 8 In much mainstream international relations theory, three crucial con-ventions about the relationship between political power and the state reduce the possibility of picking up on this geographically informed view of political power. The first is the rigid territorial conception of the spatial context in which power operates : that of a system of territorial states. A richer conception of spatial context sees the state’s territory as only one of many geographical frameworks in which political power is operative. 9 Imperial, global-network, alliance, and continental framings 40 Chapter Three are all more or less appropriate depending on issue, time period, and world region. The particular importance of different geographical frameworks to the workings and impact of power changes historically in connection with the evolving spatial structure of economic, cultural, and political activities.

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  Power and Policy

  Lessons for Leaders in Government and Business

  • Wesley B. Truitt(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  5 For the first decade of the 21st century, the world was at war more than 90 percent of the time. To better assess states’ power, it is critical to begin with an under- standing of the material bases of state power. At the same time it must be recognized that power is not immutable; it can change in quantity and/or quality and at times very quickly. Both factors may change, and over time they certainly do. China, for example, was not a great power in 1975; by 2000 it was. There is no fixed stock of power in the world. If there were, whenever one state gains power it must be at the expense of another, as in a zero sum game. Not only is the stock of power dynamic, but the nature and composition of the elements of power change over time. Technological advancements are the most decisive change elements. One type of power may diminish in importance when another is created. Leaders’ ability to capitalize on those changes and employ new components of power is a key variable in the effectiveness of power’s use. 16 Power and Policy For convenience of discussion, this chapter is divided into discrete sources and types of power, but no one type is ever decisive nor can any one source be considered paramount. All are involved at once. GEOPOLITICAL SOURCES OF STATES’ POWER Geography is the most basic power source of a nation’s strategy for its interactions in international relations. Geopolitics, or political geo- graphy, is the study that relates the physical environment to politics, particu- larly to the state. In his day, Napoleon believed the foreign policy of all states was based on their geography. 6 A country’s size, location, topogra- phy, natural resources, and distance from other states all affect the range of choices available to its statesmen. No one geographic feature pre- dominates over others, and geographic influences are seldom entirely deter- mining.

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  Global Turning Points

  The Challenges for Business and Society in the 21st Century

  • Mauro F. Guillén, Emilio Ontiveros(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  In April 2011 the International Monetary Fund predicted that China would become the world ’ s largest economy by 2016. Thus, it is quite likely that during most of the twenty-fi rst century India will be the biggest country in terms of population, China the largest The global powers of the twenty-fi rst century 163 in output, and the United States the richest among the major economies on a per capita income basis. Global powers A global power is a state with the ability to shape events and conditions worldwide. Global powers typically exert their in fl uence through economic, political, diplomatic, military, ideological, religious, and/or cultural means. The political theorist Joseph Nye distinguished between hard and soft power, predicting that in the twenty-fi rst century global powers would turn to less coercive and tangible means of exerting their in fl uence. The modern concept of global power has its origins in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which introduced the concept of the sovereign state and set the stage for the diplomatic interaction among states. Historians consider the Congress of Vienna of 1814 – 1815 as the fi rst explicit recognition of the status of the various European powers, although one could also point to the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which de fi ned global spheres of in fl uence for Portugal and Spain. During the second half of the twentieth century the term superpower was used almost interchangeably with global power, and was meant to represent a notch above the status of a mere great power. Superpower status came to be associated with the possession of nuclear weapons and with the ability to project force around the world. For instance, after World War II, France and Britain, though nuclear armed, were not deemed superpowers because they could no longer independently pro-ject force everywhere on the planet.

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  Human Geography

  People, Place, and Culture

  • Erin H. Fouberg, Alexander B. Nash, Alexander B. Murphy, Harm J. de Blij(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  This results in uneven participa- tion in the global economy for the benefit of some over others. Political geographers have a great deal to contribute to both understanding and finding solutions for those inequalities. Canada, despite its colonial beginnings and its continued reli- ance on resources, is part of the core. Since World War II, a number of supranational organizations have emerged and changed the nature of the political and socio- economic relationships among states at local, regional, and na- tional levels. While some approve of these changes, others do not. It remains to be seen how future geographies will evolve. SUMMARY Political geographers are interested in the political aspects of human-environment relations and how politics at a variety of scales have spatial implications. The primary unit of interest is the state, an entity exercising control over people occupying a bounded territory and recognized by other states. While we might take the idea of the state for granted, the modern concept of the state is less than 400 years old and, as an idea and ideology, was transported around the globe, primarily through colonialism, imperialism, and globalizing processes. The state may seem natural and permanent, but it is not. New states are still being recognized, and existing states are vulnerable to destructive forces. We can only understand the current world order—the eco- nomic, social, and political relationships—by understanding the history of the modern nation-state and colonialism and imperi- alism. European explorers and adventurers travelled the globe, NO IMPACT HIGHEST IMPACT visionofhumanity.org Summary 89 DISCUSSION AND REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. J.B. Harley (2001) observed that “As much as guns and warships, maps have been the weapons of imperialism.” What does he mean by this and how does this relate to the specific example of George Dawson’s mapping of the Queen Charlotte Islands? 2.

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  Engaging Geopolitics

  • Kathleen E Braden, Fred M Shelley(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  2

  Fundamental Concepts of Geopolitics

           

  KEYWORDS

  geography, nation, state, sovereignty, boundaries, territory, heartland

  KEY PROPOSITIONS

  • Geopolitics focuses on the geographical perspective of international relations.

  • The distinction between nation and state is crucial to understand and analyze many international conflicts.

  • There is a close relationship between power and territory at all geographic scales, sometimes leading to conflict over territorial control.

  • Geopolitics as a discipline has been influenced by British, French, German, American, and Russian theories.

   

  Geopolitics is the study of international relations and conflicts from a geographical perspective. The geographical perspective suggests that location, distance, and the distribution of natural and human resources have significant influences on international relations. Thus we begin our investigation of geopolitics by focusing on the unique perspective of the geographer. We then investigate several key geopolitical concepts: the nation, the state, power, territory and conflict.

  2.1   The geographical perspective

  Geography is the systematic study of location and place. Professional geographers address questions concerning where and why various phenomena are located and distributed. In addition, they examine and compare the unique characteristics of places while considering the relationships between individual places and the global economy.

  What distinguishes contemporary geography from other approaches to knowledge is not content, but intellectual approach. None of the vast number of subjects analyzed by professional geographers are unique to the discipline of geography. Geography is distinguished from these disciplines by its unique, holistic and integrative approach to knowledge. The geographer pulls together knowledge of social, economic, political, cultural and environmental forces that shape human activity in places and regions throughout the world.

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  Asia's Transformation

  From Economic Globalization to Regionalization

  • Jørgen Møller(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute

    (Publisher)

  137 8 The Power Game in Asia China Versus the US Regional Powers 1 An objective of superpower grand strategy is to be seen as strong enough to win a major war, thus precluding the need to actually fight. To make such a policy credible in the eyes of rivals and challengers, the financial strength of the power needs to be solid enough to sustain a protracted war. This includes keeping trade routes open, as a superpower cannot rely over the long term on its domestic resources and production capacity alone. China and the United States have pursued grand strategies that are similar in purpose, but the economic structures, geography and financial constraints limit the global ambitions for each. Economically, China is much more dependent on access to the global economy than the United States is. China cannot feed itself— the United States is a net exporter of food. China is the largest net importer of fossil fuel—in a couple of years the United States will be a net exporter. China’s share of exports/imports to GDP is around 18 per cent—for the United States the figure is around 12–14 per cent (on account of the deficit in the balance of payments, the figure is higher for imports than for exports). According to the OECD, China’s outward FDI stands at 14 per cent of GDP and its inward FDI at 21 per cent—the corresponding figures for the United States are 32 per cent and 36 per cent. 2 The United States has been a global investor (outward and inward) for more than a hundred years—China has only 138 Asia’s Transformation: From Economic Globalization to Regionalization participated in this for a couple of decades, which illustrates how quickly China has been building an international investment position. Geography requires that continental and maritime superpowers react differently to this quandary. A continental superpower, like the former Soviet Union, relies on its neighbours for overland transport links— railways or trucks.

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  21st-Century Statecraft

  Reconciling Power, Justice and Meta-Geopolitical Interests

  • Nayef Al-Rodhan(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • The Lutterworth Press

    (Publisher)

  The meta-geopolitical approach not only enables us to evaluate all of the soft- and hard-power tools used across the seven areas described above. It also allows us to make predictions about the ability of a state Meta-Geopolitics and the Seven Dimensions of State Power 43 to continue to project its power in the future. It takes into account such variables as projected population growth, demographic make-up, public health and human and scientific potential. These factors help us gauge whether a country will retain, increase or lose its current geopolitical status. More traditional geostrategic concepts usually identify and revolve around one type of threat or focus on one great power or geographic region that needs to be contained. These concepts usually lead to the conclusion that a country’s limited resources should be marshalled to deal with this one identified type of pre-eminent threat. Looking at some of the geopolitical concepts listed in the previous chapter will illustrate the one-dimensionality of more classic geopolitical concepts. For Hans Morgenthau, for example, military and economic capabilities are the most important features of a state in the global game of geopolitics. His concept of geopolitics suggested that the most important measure states can take to ensure their future national survival is to strengthen their militaries. A state basing its geostrategic decisions on Morgenthau’s worldview would have neglected to train its military to engage in stabilising missions in a failed state. Morgenthau’s worldview would have also led national-security officials to ignore the need to protect citizens sufficiently from possible terrorist attacks or pandemics. Figure 4.1 The Concept of Meta-Geopolitics 44 21st-Century Statecraft Similarly, Alexander de Seversky’s concept would have urged great powers to invest heavily in building up excellent air-power capabilities, while Alfred Thayer Mahan’s concept would have led them to enlarge their naval fleets.

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  A Companion to Political Geography

  • John A. Agnew, Katharyne Mitchell, Gerard Toal, John A. Agnew, Katharyne Mitchell, Gerard Toal(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Yet despite this problematization of ``centered'' accounts of political power in each of the above adaptations, geography, arguably, is still assumed to have less to do with the way that power works over space than does politics. Ultimately, it seems that notions of sovereignty, hegemony, domination, coercion, discipline, authority, surveillance, as well as political rule, organization, and administration, comprise the core vocabulary of power for many within political geography . Whereas distance and proximity, diffusion, and distanciation, or even territory and scale, make up the supporting glossary ± if not the backcloth to power, then part of its rich texture ± as if space makes little difference to the way that power works (see Allen, 2002). This is obviously a contentious claim and one likely to be disputed, whereas the claim that an instrumental conception of power predominates in much of the political geography literature is likely to prove less controversial. For the sense in which power acts as a constraint, an instrument of domination rather than an enabling force, runs through a great number of international relations, world systems, critical geopolitics, and political geography tracts. This is neither altogether surprising, nor wrong in essence, but it is partial. From the work of Hannah Arendt, but also from Michel Foucault, it is possible to see how an alternative understanding of power, one based upon enablement and association, can help us understand the political landscape in different ways. Such an understanding may lend itself to an explanation of the mobilizing actions of NGOs or protest movements in general, but it is by no means restricted to such accounts. BIBLIOGRAPHY Agnew, J. 1994. The territorial trap: the geographical assumptions of international relations theory. Review of International Political Economy , 1(1), 53±80. Agnew, J. 1999. Mapping political power beyond state boundaries: territory, identity, and movement in world politics.

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  Questioning Geopolitics

  Political Projects in a Changing World-System

  • Georgi M. Derluguian, Scott L. Greer(Authors)
  • 2000(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  58 Restructuring World Power Second, various formulations of world-system theory (e.g., Arrighi, 1994; Wallerstein, 1974b, 1980, 1989) introduce in a somewhat ad hoc way the notion of geopositional advantage: for example, that the locations of Portugal and En- gland on the edges of Europe favored their expansion as overseas empires, at just the time when the continent was a cockpit of resource-richer but mutually stalemating land powers. From the point of view of geopolitical theory, what world-system theory interprets as economically driven cyclical decline of he- gemons could be the result of geopolitical strains: overextension via logistical strain (principle 5), or mutual destruction of resource-rich states in showdown wars (principle 4) leads to relatively sudden collapse, thereby creating a power vacuum, an opening to new would-be hegemons. The alternative explanations here need closer examination in specific historical cases. Here we will make only two suggestions. First, world-system historians may overstate the generality of the model that there is always, at the appropriate cyclical peak, a hegemon in the full sense of the term (i.e., both as center of economic networks, and also clear-cut military dominant). The international relations theory of hegemonic stability (Gilpin, 1987), although it lacks the economic model of the capitalist world-system, similarly shares this analytical preference for the existence of a hegemon. But geopolitical theory suggests that simplification down to two major contending powers is rare enough, let alone further simplification down to a single over- arching state power. Geopolitical theory suggests that for large portions of history, there are a plurality of states, most of which are blocked in a balance- of-power situation, while there exist only incipient dominant powers moving up through the cumulative feedbacks of resource growth and marchland advantage.

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  Visualizing Human Geography

  At Home in a Diverse World

  • Alyson L. Greiner(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Thinking about the variations from one country to another in terms of voting and electoral practices is just one dimension of political geography. We will say more about electoral geography later in the chapter; first we want to introduce you to the development of our political map, its states, and contemporary geopolitics. AFP/Getty Images GLOBALLOCATOR 1. Define sovereignty. 2. Distinguish between a state and a nation. 3. Identify some of the impacts of colonialism on the political geography of Africa. I t is sometimes said that political geography exists because people are territorial. Most political geographers consider human territoriality to be more than an instinctive, Key Concepts in Political Geography LEARNING OBJECTIVES biological response. Instead, they see it as a complex form of behavior that is shaped by diverse social and cultural factors related to human identity. Territoriality can be expressed by individuals and by groups. The concept of personal space helps us understand territoriality on an individual level. Personal space is 174 CHAPTER 7 Political Geographies political geography The study of the spatial aspects of political affairs. territoriality Strong attachment to or defensive control of a place or an area. Ask Yourself 1. What is an advantage of using a map of this scale to depict the world’s countries? A disadvantage? 2. What six territories on this map are not independent countries? Political map of the world • Figure 7.1 The 195 countries shown on this map provide one powerful expression of human territoriality. The use of such territorially defined political units has become the dominant mode of political organization around the world only within the past four centuries. Throughout most of human history, people organized themselves in different ways, for example, according to class, kinship, or as subjects owing allegiance to a king, an emperor, or other ruler. (Source: NG Maps.)

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