Polarity in international relations

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Polarity in international relations

Polarity in international relations is a description of the distribution of power within the international system. It describes the nature of the international system at any given period of time. There are three types of systems, Unipolarity, Bipolarity, and Multipolarity. The type of system is completely dependent on the distribution of power and influence of states in a region or internationally.

Unipolarity
Unipolarity in international politics describes a distribution of power in which there is one state with most of the cultural, economic, and military influence.

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Unipolarity

Unipolarity in international politics describes a distribution of power in which there is one state with most of the cultural, economic, and military influence. This is different than hegemony

Hegemony

Hegemony first denoted the dominance of a Greek city-state over other city-states, then denoted the dominance of one nation over others. The political scientist Antonio Gramsci developed the former conceptions to identify the dominance of one social class over the other social classes in a society by means of cultural hegemony....
since a hegemon may not have total control of the sea ports or "commons".

Examples of Unipolarity

A true unipolarity that has influence all over the known world is difficult to form prior to the Age of Discovery

Age of Discovery

The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in human history starting in the 15th Century and continuing into the 17th Century, during which Europeans explored the world by ocean searching for trading partners and particular trade goods....
due to the lack of communication and information regarding other nations. Therefore, all the examples of this list, except the last two, are examples of regional unipolarity.

The Egyptian Empire
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
, from 3150 BC to 664 BC (approximate dates, there was a slow break down of the kingdom in the end).
The Greeks, from 776 to 146 BC (In 332 BC the Persian ruler Mazaces handed Egypt over to Alexander the Great without a fight. and in 146 BC Greece was conquered by Rome and became part of the Roman Empire).
The Persian Empire
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
from 550 BC to 330 BC - From Central Asia to Macedonia, including Northern Africa and South Asia.
Imperial China
Imperial China

Imperial China may refer to:* The History of China#Imperial era , article which gives a summary of the Imperial dynasties or empires from the Qin Dynasty until the end of the Qing Dynasty, and can be divided into three major periods:...
from 211 BC to 1912 AD - A number of dynasties, including Qin, Han, Tang, Yuan, Ming and early Qing enjoyed periods of dominance in its known world of East Asia and at times in Central Asia.
The Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
from 31 BC to the 5th century - Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia Minor.
The Mongolian Empire in the 13th and 14th centuries - All across Asia and to Eastern Europe and Egypt.
The Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
, 6th century onwards until its gradual decline and replacement by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
- Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and Asia Minor, with influence reaching to as far as Spain at times. Exists as a bipolarity with the Western Roman Empire before its fall.
The Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
, from the 15th to the 17th centuries - same as above.
The Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire

The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in world history, and one of the first global empires. It included territories and colonies ruled by Spain in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania between the 15th and late 19th centuries....
, from 1492 or 1516 to 1659
The French Empire, during the reigns of Louis XIV and Napoleon I
The British Empire
British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, and other Dependent territory ruled or administered by the United Kingdom , that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries....
from the end of Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts involving Napoleon I of France First French Empire and changing sets of European allies and opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815....
- beginning of the 20th century
The United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
; with the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States became the dominant military force in the world, along with considerable economic, cultural, and political influence.

Bipolarity

Bipolarity in international politics describes a distribution of power in which two states have the majority of economic, military, and cultural influence internationally or regionally. Often, spheres of influence would develop. For example, in the Cold War, most Western and democratic states would fall under the influence of the USA, while most Communist states would fall under the influence of the USSR. After this, the two powers will normally maneuver for the support of the unclaimed areas.

Examples

The United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
during the peak of the Cold War
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
. However, the Sino-Soviet split
Sino-Soviet split

Sino-Soviet split was a gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. There is no particular date or event which marked the onset of the split, for tensions had plagued the Sino-Soviet alliance even at its best, but there was growing divergence between the two countries sinc...
of circa 1960 led to the rise of China as a possible third superpower.
Great Britain
Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
and France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
during the colonial era.
Early modern period

The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period roughly between 1500 to 1800 in Western Europe . It follows the Late Middle Ages period, and is marked by the first European colony, the rise of strong centralized governments, and the beginnings of recognizable nation states that are the direct antecedents of today'...
Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and China's Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Han Dynasty was ruled by the family known as the Liu clan who had peasant origins....
. While the world was very much not globalized at the time, the Chinese empire under the Han dynasty and the Roman empire were clearly the two most powerful states at the time. Both were equally impressive, with the Romans in the west and the Han empire in the east.

Regional examples

Sparta
Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
and Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
during much of pre-Alexandrian Greek history.
Carthage
Carthage

Carthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian....
and the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
prior to the Punic Wars
Punic Wars

The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Ancient Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 BC. They were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient world....
Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and the Sassanid Empire
Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
during the Roman-Persian Wars
Roman-Persian Wars

The Roman–Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Greco-Roman world and two successive List of Iranic states and empires. Contact between Parthia and the Roman Republic began in 92 BC; wars began under the late Republic, and continued through the Roman Empire and Sassanid Empires....
, until the Arab invasion of Persia.
Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
and Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, up until the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War or the Manchurian Campaign in some English sources, was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperialism ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea....
of 1905, causing bipolarity in spheres of influence in several parts of China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
, and Mongolia
Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....
.
Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, the Safavid Empire and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
in struggles to attain regions surrounding the Black Sea
Black Sea

The Black Sea is an inland sea sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolia and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Seas and various straits....
, from the early 1700s until World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
.
Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
and Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
could be considered regional powers in the Middle East during the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1948-1978

Multi-state examples of Bipolarity

The bipolar system can be said to extend to much larger systems, such as alliances or organizations, which would not be considered nation-states, but would still have power concentrated in two primary groups.

In both World Wars, much of the world, and especially Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
had been divided into two respective spheres - one case being the Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers were those countries that were opposed to the Allies of World War II during World War II. The three major Axis powers - Nazi Germany, Kingdom of Italy , and Empire of Japan - were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers....
and Allies

Allies

In general, allies are people, groups or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose....
of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
(1939-1945) - and the division of power between the Central Powers

Central Powers

The Central Powers was one of the two sides that participated in World War I, the other being the Allies of World War I....
and Allied Powers during World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
(1914-1918). Neutral nations, however, may have caused what may be assessed as an example of tripolarity as well within both of the conflicts.

Multipolarity

Multipolarity in international politics describes a distribution of power in which more than two nation-states have nearly equal amounts of military, cultural, and economic influence.

Opinions on the stability of multipolarity differ. Classical realist theorists, such as Hans Morgenthau

Hans Morgenthau

Hans Joachim Morgenthau was a pioneer in the field of international relations theory. He was born in Coburg, Germany, and educated at the universities of Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich....
and E. H. Carr hold that multipolar systems are more stable than bipolar systems, as great powers can gain power through alliances and petty wars that do not directly challenge other powers; in bipolar systems, classical realists argue, this is not possible. On the other hand, the neorealist focus on security and invert the formula: states in a multipolar system can focus their fears on any number of other powers and, misjudging the intentions of other states, unnecessarily compromise their security, while states in a bipolar system always focus their fears on one other power, meaning that at worst the powers will miscalculate the force required to counter threats and spend slightly too much on the operation. However, due to the complexity of mutually assured destruction scenarios, with nuclear weapons, multipolar systems may be more stable than bipolar systems even in the neorealist analysis. This system tends to have many shifting alliances until one of two things happens. Either a balance of power is struck, and neither side wants to attack the other, or one side will attack the other because it either fears the potential of the new alliance, or it feels that it can defeat the other side.

One of the major implications of an international system with any number of poles, including a multipolar system, is that international decisions will often be made for strategic reasons to maintain a balance of power rather than out of ideological or historical reasons.

The 'Concert of Europe,' a period from after the Napoleonic Wars to the Crimean War, was an example of peaceful multipolarity (the great powers of Europe assembled regularly to discuss international and domestic issues). World War I

World War I

World War II

Warring States Period

The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, covers the period from 476 BCE to the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE....
, the Three Kingdoms

Three Kingdoms

The Three Kingdoms period is a period in the history of China, part of an era of disunity called the Six Dynasties following immediately the loss of de facto power of the Han Dynasty emperors....
period and the tripartite division between Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling Chinese dynasty in China between 960–1279 AD; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty....
/Liao Dynasty

Liao Dynasty

The Liao Dynasty , 907-1125, also known as the Khitan Empire , was an empire in East Asia that ruled over the regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and parts of northern China proper....
/Jin Dynasty

Jin Dynasty

Jin Dynasty may refer to:* Jin Dynasty , Chinese dynasty, subdivided into the Western and Eastern Jin periods* Later Jin Dynasty , one of the Five Dynasties during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China....
/Yuan Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was both the continuation of the Mongol Empire and the Mongol founded historical state in Mongolia and China, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368....
are all examples of a wartime multipolarity.

Multipolarity today

Those claiming that the world is multipolar fall into two main camps. A "superpower is something of the past" view holds that the USA and USSR in the Cold War were in fact superpowers, but argues that due to the complex economic interdependencies on the international scale and the creation of a global village, the concept of one or more states gaining enough power to claim superpower status is antiquated. The rival view is that even throughout the Cold War, neither the USA or the USSR were superpowers, but were actually dependent on the smaller states in their "spheres of influence."

While the US has a great deal of economic clout and has influenced the culture of many nations, their dependency on foreign investors and reliance on foreign trade have created a mutual economic dependency between developed and developing nations. According to those who believe the world is multipolar, this interdependency means the US can't be called a superpower as it isn't self-sufficient and relies on the global community to sustain its people's quality of life. These interdepencies also apply to diplomacy. Considering the complex state of world affairs and the military might of some developing nations, it has become increasingly difficult to engage in foreign policy if it is not supported by other nations. The diplomatic and economic factors that bind the global village together have created a state in which no nation or union can dominate the others.

Nonpolarity

Nonpolarity refers to an international system with numerous centers of power; no one center of power dominates. Centers of power can be Nation-states, corporations, non-governmental organizations, terrorist groups, and such. Power is found in many hands and many places.

Measuring the power concentration

The Correlates of War

Correlates of War

The Correlates of War project is an academic study of the history of warfare. It was started in 1963 at the University of Michigan by political scientist J....
uses a systemic concentration of power formula to calculate the polarity of a given great power

Great power

A great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess economics, military, diplomacy, and soft power strength, which may cause other, smaller nations to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions of their own....
system. The formula was developed by J. David Singer

J. David Singer

J. David Singer is an American professor of political science. He was born in New York on December 7th, 1925. He holds a bachelor's degree from Duke University and a doctoral degree from New York University....
et al. in 1972.

Concentration_t =

N_t = the number of states in the great power system at time t
S_it = the proportion of power possessed by state i at time t (must be a decimal figure)

S = the proportion of power possessed

i = the state of which the proportion of control over the system's power is being measured

t = the time at which the concentration of resources (i.e. power) is being calculated

= the sum of the proportion of power possessed by all states in the great power system

The closer the resulting concentration is to zero, the more evenly divided power is. The closer to 1, the more concentrated power is. There is a general but not strict correlation between concentration and polarity. It is rare to find a result over 0.5, but a result between 0.4 and 0.5 usually indicates a unipolar system, while a result between 0.2 and 0.4 usually indicated a bipolar or multipolar system. Concentration can be plotted over time, so that the fluctuations and trends in concentration can be observed. concentration of power formula to calculate the polarity of a given great power system.

Bibliography

Thompson, William R. On Global War: Historical-Structural Approaches to World Politics. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1988, pp. 209-210.

Polarity in international relations

Unipolarity

Examples of Unipolarity

Bipolarity

Examples

Regional examples

Multi-state examples of Bipolarity

Multipolarity

Multipolarity today

Nonpolarity

Measuring the power concentration

See also

Bibliography

External links