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Great power
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A great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess economic, military, diplomatic, and cultural strength, which may cause other, smaller nations to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions of their own.
The term "great power" was first used to represent the most important powers in Europe during the post-Napoleonic era.
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A great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess economic, military, diplomatic, and cultural strength, which may cause other, smaller nations to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions of their own.
The term "great power" was first used to represent the most important powers in Europe during the post-Napoleonic era. Since then, power has been shifted numerous times, most dramatically during World War I and World War II. While some nations are widely considered to be great powers, there is no definitive list, leading to a continuing debate.
Characteristics
There are no set or defined characteristics of a great power. These characteristics have often been treated as empirical, self-evident to the assessor. However, this approach has the disadvantage of subjectivity. As a result, there have been attempts to derive somecommon criteria and to treat these as essential elements of great power status.
Early writings on the subject tended to judge nations by the realist criterion, as expressed by the historian AJP Taylor when he noted that "The test of a Great power is the test of strength for war." Later writers have expanded this test, attempting to define power in terms of overall military, economic, and political capacity. Kenneth Waltz, the founder of the neorealism theory of international relations, uses a set of five criteria to determine great power: population and territory; resource endowment; economic capability; political stability and competence; and military strength. These expanded criteria can be divided into three heads: power capabilities, spatial aspects, and status.
Power dimension
As noted above, for many, power capabilities were the sole criterion. However, even under the more expansive tests power retains a vital place.
This aspect has received mixed treatment, with some confusion as to the degree of power required. Writers have approached the concept of great power with differing conceptualizations of the world situation, from multi-polarity to overwhelming hegemony. In his essay, 'French Diplomacy in the Postwar Period', the French historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle spoke to the concept of multi-polarity: "A Great power is one which is capable of preserving its own independence against any other single power."
This differed from earlier writers, notably from Leopold von Ranke, who clearly had a different idea of the world situation. In his essay 'The Great Powers', written in 1833, von Ranke wrote: "If one could establish as a definition of a Great power that it must be able to maintain itself against all others, even when they are united, then Frederick has raised Prussia to that position."
These positions have been the subject of criticism. For Duroselle's definition to result in more than one great power, major world powers must be equal in power—each able to resist one another. This fails to take into account the general state of international relations in which amongst great powers there are nations which are stronger than others.
Spatial dimension
All nations have a geographic scope of interests, actions, or projected power. This is a crucial factor in distinguishing a great power from a regional power; by definition the scope of a regional power is restricted to its region. It has been suggested that a great power should be possessed of actual influence throughout the scope of the prevailing international system. Arnold J. Toynbee, for example, observes that "Great power may be defined as a political force exerting an effect co-extensive with the widest range of the society in which it operates. The Great powers of 1914 were 'world-powers' because Western society had recently become 'world-wide'."
Other suggestions have been made that a great power should have the capacity to engage in extra-regional affairs and that a great power ought to be possessed of extra-regional interests, two propositions which are often closely connected.
Status dimension
Formal or informal acknowledgment of a nation's great-power status has also been a criterion for being a great power. As political scientist George Modelski notes, "The status of Great power is sometimes confused with the condition of being powerful, The office, as it is known, did in fact evolve from the role played by the great military states in earlier periods ... But the Great power system institutionalizes the position of the powerful state in a web of rights and obligations."
This approach restricts analysis to the post-Congress of Vienna epoch; it being there that great powers were first formally recognized. In the absence of such a formal act of recognition it has been suggested that great power status can arise by implication, by judging the nature of a state's relations with other great powers.
A further option is to examine a state's willingness to act as a great power. As a nation will seldom declare that it is acting as such, this usually entails a retrospective examination of state conduct. As a result this is of limited use in establishing the nature of contemporary powers, at least not without the exercise of subjective observation.
Other important criteria throughout history are that great powers should have enough influence to be included in discussions of political and diplomatic questions of the day, and have influence on the final outcome and resolution. Historically, when major political questions were addressed, several great powers met to discuss them. Before the era of groups like the United Nations, participants of such meetings were not officially named, but were decided based on their great power status. These were conferences which settled important questions based on major historical events. This might mean deciding the political resolution of various geographical and nationalist claims following a major conflict, or other contexts.
There are several historical conferences and treaties which display this pattern, such as the Congress of Vienna, the Congress of Berlin, the discussions of the Treaty of Versailles which redrew the map of Europe, and the Treaty of Westphalia.
History
Different sets of great, or significant, powers have existed throughout history; however, the term "great power" has only been used in scholarly or diplomatic discourse since the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Congress established the Concert of Europe as an attempt to preserve peace after the years of Napoleonic Wars.
Lord Castlereagh, the British Foreign Secretary, first used the term in its diplomatic context, in a letter sent on February 13, 1814: "It affords me great satisfaction to acquaint you that there is every prospect of the Congress terminating with a general accord and Guarantee between the Great powers of Europe, with a determination to support the arrangement agreed upon, and to turn the general influence and if necessary the general arms against the Power that shall first attempt to disturb the Continental peace."
The Congress of Vienna consisted of five main powers: the United Kingdom, the Austrian Empire, Prussia, France, and Russia. Other powers, such as Spain, Portugal, and Sweden were consulted on certain specific issues, but they were not full participants. Hanover, Bavaria, and Württemberg were also consulted on issues relating to Germany. These five primary participants constituted the original great powers as we know the term today.
Over time, the relative power of these five nations fluctuated, which by the dawn of the 20th century had served to create an entirely different balance of power. Some, such as the UK and Prussia (as part of the newly-formed German state), experienced continued economic growth and political power. Others, such as Russia and Austria-Hungary, slowly stagnated.. At the same time, other states were emerging and expanding in power, largely through the process of industrialization. The foremost of these emerging powers were Japan after the Meiji Restoration and the United States after its civil war, both of which had been minor powers in 1815. By the dawn of the 20th century the balance of world power had changed substantially since the Congress of Vienna. The Eight-Nation Alliance was a belligerent alliance of eight nations against the Boxer Rebellion in China. It formed in 1900 and consisted of the five Congress powers plus Italy, Japan, and the United States, representing the great powers at the beginning of 20th century.
Shifts of international power have most notably occurred through major conflicts. The conclusion of World War I and the resulting treaties of Versailles, St-Germain, and Trianon witnessed the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan and the United States as the chief arbiters of the new world order. The end of World War II saw the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union emerge as the primary victors. The importance of Republic of China and France was acknowledged by their inclusion, along with the other three, in the group of countries allotted permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council.
Since the end of the World Wars, the term "great power" has been joined by a number of other power classifications. Foremost among these is the concept of the superpower, used to describe those nations with overwhelming power and influence in the rest of the world. This term middle power has emerged for those nations which exercise a degree of global influence, but are insufficient to be decisive on international affairs. Regional powers are those whose influence is generally confined to their region of the world. Since the end of World War II, there has been no unanimous agreement among authorities as to the current status of the great powers, with Germany and Japan sometimes being called middle powers or economic great powers.
Since the founding of the United Nations Security Council in 1945, the permanent seat of the Republic of China was transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1971 and the permanent seat of the Soviet Union was transferred to the Russian Federation in 1991, as its successor state. There are at present calls to reform the Security Council so that other states can have permanent seats.
Change of great powers
In the past, the term great power was mostly restricted to powers within Europe (see history above). Ever since the term was first academically used in 1815, numerous powers have rotated between the status of great power, middle power and superpower. These are listed below. Major power shifts occurred in the aftermath of the First and Second World Wars. Austria-Hungary, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire all collapsed after World War I. The Ottoman and Austria-Hungarian empires were divided into new, less powerful states; the Russian Empire fell to a communist revolt. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the only two superpowers.
After World War II, the European powers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany managed to rebuild their economies. France and the United Kingdom maintained technologically advanced armed forces with power projection capabilities, and currently have the largest defence budgets after the United States. Germany is considered by experts to be an economic great power. It is considered by Chancellor Angela Merkel, former president Johannes Rau and leading media of the country as a middle power in Europe.
China, with the world's greatest population, has built up to great power status during the post-war period, with large growths in economic and military power. In addition, in Asia, Japan is considered by many to be a great power, and by experts as an economic power like Germany. After the dissolution of the USSR, the newly formed Russian Federation emerged on the level of a great power, leaving the United States as the sole superpower (although this is disputed in favor of the multipolar world view). Russia is however sometimes described as an energy superpower.
Great powers in 1815
These were the recognized great powers at the Congress of Vienna. This is the beginning of the Pax Britannica and of The Great Game between Britain and Russia.
Great powers c. 1880
In the middle of the 19th century the Austrian Empire had become Austria-Hungary, and Prussia became part of a larger, unified German state. Otto von Bismarck said in 1880 "All politics reduces itself to this formula: try to be one of three, as long as the world is governed by the unstable equilibrium of five great powers."
Great powers c. 1900
By the turn of the 20th century the Empire of Japan, the Kingdom of Italy, and the United States had grown to become great powers. The great powers of the early 1900s are best shown by their actions in the Eight-Nation Alliance during the Boxer Rebellion.
Great powers in 1919
In the aftermath of the Great War there were five main victors. During the Treaty of Versailles the "Big Three"—France, the United Kingdom, and the United States—held noticeably more power and influence on the proceedings and outcome of the treaty than Italy or Japan. By the early 1920s the British Empire would reach its peak.
Great powers in 1945
In the aftermath of World War II the United Nations was established and five nations had permanent seats on its Security Council.
(also referred to as a superpower)
(until the 1950s also referred to as a superpower)
(also referred to as a superpower)
The United States and Soviet Union subsequently became the world's superpowers during the era known as the Cold War. As the Cold War continued, authorities began to question if the United Kingdom and France could retain their long held great power status.
Current great powers
Although the five powers listed below are still sometimes referred to as great powers, there is no unanimous agreement among authorities; other sources refer to some of them as middle powers. All five have, and are the only states to have at present, permanent seats on the UN Security Council. They are also the recognised "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
(successor state to the Republic of China)
(also referred to as a superpower)
With considerable economies, the following countries are also sometimes considered to be great powers, despite a lack of nuclear weapons and a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
See also
Further reading
- The Tragedy of Great Power Politics by John J. Mearsheimer
- Theory of International Politics by Kenneth N Waltz
- World Politics: Trend and Transformation by Eugene R. Witkopf
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
- France and the Nazi Threat: The Collapse of French Diplomacy 1932-1939 by Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, Introduction by Anthony Adamthwaite (Enigma Books, ISBN 1-929631-15-4)
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