Changing patterns of power

Superpower status is not fixed
In the USA, there is concern that the country's superpower status is threatened
The economic and population centres of gravity of the world is shifting towards Asia
In some ways it is inevitable that the USA will fall from its 'perch', if only because history suggests superpowers do not last forever
The nineteenth century superpower was the British Empire, which has emerged as the dominant global power during the eighteenth century
At its height, in 1921, the British empire help sway over 458 million people, approximately one-quarter of the world's population
It covered about 36.7 million km squared, roughly a quarter of Earth's total land area
The rise and fall of the British Empire
1. The British Empire was founded on expiration and sea power
2. The Royal Navy dominated the high seas from around 1700 until the 1930s
3. The Navy provided a link between the home country and overseas colonies, and at the same time was a powerful 'keep off' symbol of military power
4. Three distinct phases of empire can be identified
  1. The mercantilist phase (1600-1850)
    1. Small colonies set up on coastal fringes and islands, e.g. New England, Jamaica, Accra, Bombay, defended by forts
    2. Focus on trade, including slaves and raw materials such as sugar
    3. Private trading companies such as the Royal African Company, Hudson's Bay
    4. Company and East India Company, defended by British forces
  2. The imperial phase (1850-1945)
    1. Coastal colonies extended inland; wholesale conquest of territories
    2. Government and institutions set up to rule the colonial population
    3. Religion and British culture and language introduced to colonies
    4. Development of more complex trade networks
    5. Use of technology such as railways and telegraph to connect distant parts of the empire
  3. The decolonialisation phase (1945-)
    1. After the Second World War the UK is effectively bankrupt and cannot support the empire as before
    2. Anti-colonial movements grow, e.g. in India, increasing tensions; some colonies are granted independence
    3. The focus on postwar reconstruction at home sees the majority of colonies independent by 1970
5. Britain does have a superpower legacy
6. It retains control of 14 overseas territories and fought a war to keep one of these, the Falkland islands, in 1982
7. The commonwealth is an association of 53 independent states which consult and cooperate in the common interests of their peoples and in the promotion of international understanding
8. The association does not have a written constitution, but it does have a series of agreements setting out its beliefs and objectives
The collapse of communism
1. The world changed dramatically following the collapse of communism
2. The process was rapid and pivoted around the key 'public' event of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
3. The Berlin Wall had long symbolised the political separation of the Cold War superpowers
4. The fall of communism in the eastern European Warsaw Pact countries took little more than 4 months
5. The cultural and economic hegemony of the USSR disintegrated overnight
6. The causes of the collapse were reforms in the USSA begun in 1985 by President Mikhail Gorbachev
7. These reforms were termed glasnost and perestroika
8. Economic and social reform spread to the Warsaw Pact countries, where small freedoms quickly mushroomed into open revolt against the Communist system
9. The USSR itself collapsed in February 1990 when the Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power
10. This led to the break-up of the entire country, as nationalist tensions, kept in check by the Communist system, split the country apart
11. In rapid succession the republics of the USSR, such as Latvia, Kazakhstan and Georgia, broke away to become independent nations
12. In retrospect, glasnost and perestroika acted as cracked in the Communist system because of the collective benefits it brought
13. The speed of collapse might suggest force, rather than consent, was more important in maintaining communism
Emerging Superpowers
1. While some superpowers have declined or collapsed, others are emerging to challenge the dominance of the USA
2. These are the BRICs, the EU and the oil-rich nations of the middle east
3. Strong economic growth
4. Large populations
5. Access to key resources
6. Market economies
7. Regional power and influence
8. In the next 20 years some are expected to increase their global power and influence
9. Global trends 2025: A transformed world, a report by the US National Intelligence Council in 2008, stated that:
  1. A global multi-polar system is emerging with the rise of China, India and others
  2. The unprecedented shift in relative wealth and economic power roughly from West to East now under way will continue
  3. The United States will remain the single most powerful country but will be less dominant
10. Clearly the USA itself can feel its power weakening, especially in relation to China
11. There are many possible reasons for this that relate to both a weakening USA and a rising China

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Changing patterns of power

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	Created by Jodie Goodacre over 10 years ago