1. Superpower Geographies
Relevance
To be adapted for Edexcel, A-Level unit 3, topic 4 (Superpower geographies) An introduction to superpowers. This presentation will ask who the superpowers are and their power has developed over time.
Objectives
To understand that the concept of a ‘superpower’ has developed to include economic, cultural, military and political influence
To appreciate that the patterns of global power change over time, as illustrated by the rise of the BRICs and non-state superpowers
Outcomes
To define the term ‘superpower’
To give examples of superpowers in the past, present and future.
To be able to describe the capabilities of named superpowers and explain what makes them a superpower
This presentation was given by Dr Alasdair Pinkerton, Lecturer in Human Geography (Royal Holloway, University of London), at the RGS-IBG A2 study day on 15 October 2012.
Dr. Alasdair Pinkerton
Department of Geography
Royal Holloway, University of London
@rhulgeography
@alpinkerton

2. What is a superpower? Question 1:
Question: What is a superpower? This question can be broken down by asking students to name the various kinds of power that exist. This might include:
Economic power
Military power
Political power
Cultural power
Interactive: Ask students to write down (in three columns) what they believe to be the superpowers of: i) the past; ii) the present; and iii) the future. Student should keep this list safe as it will be returned to at the end of the lesson. Prompt students to think about how they might define a ‘superpower’.

3. Global reach and projection of power
What is a superpower?
Country (or countries) with exceptional capacities especially military/industrial – nuclear weapon state
Global reach and projection of power
William Fox (1944) first used the term to refer to Allied powers at end of WWII
The USA is perhaps the only country that we can consider a ‘superpower’ today. However, students might want to challenge this idea at the end of the lesson. They may wish to particularly consider whether China is becoming a new superpower, for example.
A superpower is defined as:
A country (or countries – think about NATO, or other such international alliances) with exceptional capacities, especially in terms of military and industrial power. For much of the second-half of the 20th Century, the idea of the ‘superpower’ was also very much bound with the that of a nuclear weapon state. During the Cold War, a superpower might be defined according to who has an who doesn’t have nuclear weapons as part of their larger armory.
A country that has the ability to project its authority beyond its own boundaries. The US, for example, has been able to project its various influences (political, economic, cultural) around the world due to its exceptional capacities.
It must be noted that the term ‘superpower’ is not that old. It was only coined in 1944 by political scientist William Fox – to refer to the three allied ‘superpowers’ (USSR, USA and UK) that were emerging victorious from World War II.

4. Winston Churchill Prime Minister, UK Franklin D Roosevelt
President, US
Joseph Stalin
Premier, USSR
Image: These three gentlemen represent the three allied ‘superpowers’ that William Fox was referring to in From left to right: Winston Churchill (Prime Minister, UK), Franklin D Roosevelt (President, US) and Joseph Stalin (Premier, USSR).
Interactive: Before clicking to reveal their names, encourage students to identify each leader.
These three men met at the Yalta conference in 1945 (Yalta is near the Black Sea in what is the Ukraine today and in 1944 was the USSR) to effectively discuss the future of the world – how they were going to rebuild it after World War II. This is the creation of a new global order, in which the global superpowers were defining themselves.
Yalta Conference: February

5. Why might the term be useful?
Question 2:
Why might the term be useful?
Question: Why might the term ‘superpower’ be useful? What might it help us understand?

6. Exposes some powerful fictions of international politics:
Why might the term be useful?
Exposes some powerful fictions of international politics:
All states equal and international boundaries respected by other states
Sovereignty is absolute
Superpowers as hyper-modern, developed, and civilizing agents?
It exposes assumption that we have about the way in which countries act with one another. The term ‘superpower’ helps us break through these assumptions to understand that, in fact:
Not all countries have equal amounts of power
Some countries can project their powers, whilst other are receptive to it
National boundaries are porous – outside influence can permeate into a country
Some national boundaries are less respected/protected by some countries than others
Whilst countries, particularly superpowers, can and do act independently, many countries also operate within a network of international agreements and alliances covering a wide range of relationship from defense to trade, human rights to environmental protection
Ultimately, countries (and the governments elected to govern them) do not have full power over their own destiny. Other countries – often superpowers – can exert influence on countries with less power, thus influence what happens within their boundaries.

7. Proliferation, disease, trade, resources, etc.
Why might the term be useful?
Helps us understand how/where global power is possessed and acquired…
BRIC
Brazil, Russia,
India, China
NON-STATE ACTORS
NGOs, MNCs,
Terrorist groups
ISSUES
Proliferation, disease, trade, resources, etc.
Image: George W Bush (US President, ) and ‘Lula’ da Silva (Brazilian President, ) embrace. This image represents a meeting of a traditional superpower (US) and a rising superpower (Brazil).
BRIC: Brazil is part of a group of rising super powers, widely known as the ‘BRICs’ (an acronym of the first letters of: Brazil, Russia, India, China). South Africa is now also considered a BRIC nation. These are rising economic superpowers, but would you say that they have also exercised cultural, political or military power on a world stage? Perhaps not as obviously as they have exercised economic power.
Non-State Actors: We often assume that superpowers are always countries. But you can increasing argue that power is invested in a whole host of other organisations. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are becoming increasingly prominent in the world. Multinational Corporations have been incredibly effective in extending their reach around the world and in accumulated great economic wealth. Terrorist groups have also been incredibly influential, especially over the last decade over so – who would have thought that the US (the world’s superpower) could be so publicly exposed by so few individuals, as it was on 11 September 2011?
Issues: Proliferation (the global spread of nuclear weapons) acts as an unstable force in the world. These issues cause the global superpowers to become animated in discussions about power. For example, the Iran nuclear program has caused a great deal of concern from many of the world’s powers. But just because of their extraordinary capabilities, superpowers are not necessarily able to cope with global issues such as the spread of disease. The changing patterns of global trade also raise questions about the global distribution of power. It is often understood that countries with large reserves of natural resources are able to develop high levels of power (such as Britain’s rise to colonial power following its exploitation of national coal reserves during the industrial revolution). However, parts of Africa have large amounts of natural resources but limited amounts of power on the global stage today.

8. Cold War and Two Superpowers
The Cold War, stretched roughly from 1945 until 1991, and involved two superpowers – the USA and USSR
The Cold War created much of the 20th Century. This was one of the most important geographical events in many students’ parents’ and grandparents’ lifetimes. It totally transformed the way in which the world thought about geography.

9. Cold War and Two Superpowers
Economic superpowers – trade and finance Military superpowers – nuclear weapon states Political superpowers – rival global ideologies Culture superpowers– public diplomacy and ‘soft power’
Image: A still image from ‘Rocky IV’ (1985), this is representative of the Cold War. The USSR boxer on the right is fighting the US boxer on the left. A battle between the US and the USSR, this expressed the Cold War tensions between the world’s two superpowers in a sporting arena.
Question: What do we mean by ‘superpower’ when we refer to the US and the USSR in the context of the Cold War?
Economic superpowers – Dominated global trade and finance
Military superpowers – Possessed and seemed to be prepared to use nuclear weapons against one another
Political superpowers –Represented their own very clear and distinct political ideologies (US capitalism versus USSR communism)
Cultural superpowers – Exported various cultural ideas to their respective ‘spheres of influence’ (the geographical area that was loosely allied with them)
Key terms: Soft power is a capacity possessed by those countries that are very effective as sharing their ideas, cultural values and societal norms with other countries. It differs from ‘hard’ power, which involves the use of military hardware (bombs, tanks, nuclear deterrents) to exert influence.
Public diplomacy involves politicians and diplomats engaging directly with you, the public, generally through culture and the media (films, radio, advertising, social media). Governments may seek to influence their own nation’s public or they may try to capture the ‘hearts and minds’ of another nation’s public. This differs from ‘formal’ diplomacy which takes place between politicians and diplomats alike
Read more about ‘public diplomacy’ and ‘soft power’ (in the context of the Olympics, especially the Falkland Islands) at:
Rocky IV (1985)

10. Military rivarly: NATO vs. the Warsaw Pact
Image: Looking at the world from the pole down was not a conventional way of looking at the world – especially before digital maps of the globe were widely used. But this view of the world – with the north pole as its focus – became increasingly common during the cold war. If nuclear bombs were going to travel from the USSR to the US (or vice versa) they were going to fly over the north pole. This space therefore because a space of anxiety and the US invested large amounts of money in early warning systems in northern Canada and Greenland.
When we are talking about the Cold War, we are not just talking about the US and the USSR – we are talking about two networks of countries. The USSR was united with the satellite states (Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria etc.) in the Warsaw pact. Meanwhile, the US was united with its allies (United Kingdom, Canada, France etc.) through the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) agreement.

11. The US as a Soft Superpower
US influence around the world was made not just through military and formal diplomacy, but also through ‘soft power’ – through movies, radio and sport. The film industry sold US ideas and culture around the world.
Image 1: Charlton Heston as Moses in the 1956 film ‘The Ten Commandments’. The is representative of a certain type of power. It is also expressive of Christianity, which was absolutely in opposition to the USSR, which suppressed religion.
Image 3: US government-sponsored radio stations, such as Radio Liberation, as a mechanism to get messages behind the Iron Curtain. This aimed to convince people living in USSR of US world views. The BBC world service could also be seen as form of ‘soft power’ around the world.
Image 4: Who topped the Olympic medal table was also often seen as a metaphor for who was doing best in the Cold War struggle. Soft power played out through sport, not least through the US-led boycott of Moscow 1980 and the USSR-led boycott of Los Angeles 1984.

12. Dissidents within the US and USSR
Challenging superpowers
Non-Aligned Movement in 1950s and 1960s post-colonial states and ‘third way’
Dissidents within the US and USSR
Resistance and defeat in Vietnam (US) and Afghanistan (USSR) and again….Iraq, Chechnya and Afghanistan
Interactive: If the US represented the ‘first world’, the USSR represented the ‘second world’, what might these five men represent? What might the third world mean in terms of their position and power in the Cold War? – a war often thought of as being two-sided.
Image: These five men (Nehru, India. Nkrumah, Ghana. Nasser, Egypt. Sukarno, Indonesia. Tito, Yugoslavia.) represent the ‘third world’ that formed as a result of their subscription to the ‘Non-Aligned Movement’.
Although the term ‘third world’ today refers to a state of underdevelopment, it actually originated from the Cold War. The ‘Non-Aligned Movement’ sided with neither the US (first world) or the USSR (second world). Those in what was then called the ‘third world’ did not want to be aligned with the political fortunes of the US and USSR – they wanted a third way. Note that the Non-Aligned Movement was often made up of post-colonial states (those that used to be colonies).
Nehru
(India)
Nkrumah
(Kenya)
Nasser
(Egypt)
Sukarno
(Indonesia)
Tito
(Yugoslavia)

13. Military-Industrial supremacy expensive to maintain
Superpowers have their limits
Bound up in networks of allies and supporters e.g. NATO and Warsaw Pact
Military-Industrial supremacy expensive to maintain
Rise and fall of superpowers – from Vietnam to Iraq (US) and from the USSR ( ) to Russia (1991-present)
Other nuclear weapon states e.g. India, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea, China…
Superpowers are bound up in networks of allies and supporters e.g NATO (US-aligned) and the Warsaw Pact (USSR-aligned)
It is expensive to maintain the position of a global superpower. For example, military supremacy costs vast amounts of money. This is one of the main limitations to the continuation of the Cold War. The USSR’s economy suffered greatly as a rest of the arms race, which ultimately proved impossible to maintain.
Superpowers can rise and fall – power can decline as well as increase. Historically, superpowers position has fluctated, undergoing ocassional moments of transformation. Decline can occur gradually or it can happened radically – as the USSR did when it reformed as Russia in 1991.
Other countries have large amounts of power as a result of their possession of nuclear weapons. The world’s superpowers therefore take a large amount of interest in these countries. But the superpowers will also refrain from interfering with a state that has nuclear weapons. It could be argued that North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons means that the US has held off from dealing with them in a military way.

14. 9/11: The Exposure of a Superpower
9/11 brought into question the ability of the US to defend itself. Its position as the world’s superpower did not appear as stable as it had. Power changes over time and the US does have vulnerabilities.
Other groups around the world were able to destabilise the world’s superpower. Power is not confined to national governments.

15. Beyond the Cold War: Rising Powers?
Brazil, China, India and Russia (BRIC) Is China the next superpower? US-China competing over resources, markets and strategic influence in Africa, Asia and Latin America Is the US a declining superpower?
We have already learnt that the BRICs are becoming increasingly powerful, whilst the US’ status as the world’s only true superpower may become increasingly contested.
Discussion often points to China as a rising economic and political power. But can China really become the next superpower?
It is true that China is increasingly competing with the US over resources, markets and strategic influence around the world (in Africa, Asia and Latin America)
So, if the US is declining (it is?) and China is rising, is there a global shift in power at the moment?

16. Beyond the Cold War: Rising Powers?
Military expenditure
(US$ Billions)
Image: Bar chart comparing military expenditure (US$ Billions) of the US, China, Russia and India in 2008 (blue) and 2011 (red). This is a popular measure of hard power.
Interactive: Ask students to describe the patterns shown in the bar chart. Encourage them to think in relative (%age) terms, as well as in terms of absolute (US$ Billions) increases. For example, India’s growth is particularly great when considered in relative terms. Can they suggest how this might implicate the future balance of world power.
How would we measure declining and rising power worldwide? Perhaps by comparing military expenditure (hard power)
The US still has a very large (an increasing) military expenditure, but the BRICs have rapidly rising military expenditures.

17. Africa at the Boiling Point China and the US in Africa
Some suggest that there is a new scramble for resources in Africa, particularly from China are keen to trade with the continent. This economic interest can be seen as an international extension of power.
However, some people claim that Africa is ‘at boiling point’ – whereby continual resource exploitation leads to political instability.
Homework
Select one African country and investigate the role that different superpowers have had on it. Use the information given on this slide as a starting point. Students should consider:
What role has the superpower played in the country’s history?
How long has the superpower been involved?
How has power over the country been maintained? Think about soft/hard and cultural/economic/military/political power.
What are the social, economic, cultural and political impacts on the country?

18. China has a research stations in Svalbard and in Antarctica
China and the Polar Regions
China has a research stations in Svalbard and in Antarctica
China conducts research around central Arctic Ocean
China believes Arctic will be a resource rich frontier
However, China isn’t just investing in Africa – it is also interested in extending its activities to the Polar regions
The polar regions may well be the next resource-rich frontier, with large amounts of natural gas and oil possibly lying there
Having knowledge of these regions, through research around the central Arctic Ocean, China is looking towards the future
Note the important of securing energy resources in order to fuel the economic growth of a superpower

19. China and the Polar Regions
Image: Chinese research team located in Svalbard, Norway

20. EU as Superpower EU as a Superpower?
Image: Map of the European Union (EU) and EU30 (which contains countries that are not officially in the EU, in red). Figures in the table show that the EU30 has a larger GDP than the US, the world’s largest economy. The countries in green are those that joined the EU expansion of 2004.
Looking beyond the BRICs, might there be other rising superpowers? How about the EU?
Now that some European countries are struggling economically, suggestions of the EU as a superpower are less common.
The EU might represent a democratic superpower to compete with the totalitarian rising superpower of China.
The EU has an international peacekeeping force and a strong economic record, however it is not wholly integrated as individual nations

21. The Vatican as a religious superpower:
Alternative superpowers?
The Vatican as a religious superpower:
Tiny geographical enclave, but global community of believers (over 1.1 Billion followers)
Apple as a commercial superpower:
$76Bn in cash reserves. More money than the US government
Beyond China and the EU, might there be other superpowers to consider? Can we look beyond countries?
The Vatican, as a religious superpower, is perhaps a bold example. It is a small enclave, but one that has global reach and influence over 1.1 Billion followers.
Apple, as a commercial superpower, is the most valuable company in the history of commercial enterprise. As of 2011, they had more cash reserves than the US government.
Blackwater, as a military superpower, is a private security firm. With considerable hardware and resources, its yields a considerable amount of hard power (normally associated with national armies).
Blackwater as a military superpower:
Blackwater (now Academi) named as world’s most powerful mercenary army

22. Conclusions
Superpowers matter, but they are embedded within relationships, networks and actors Rise of potential superpowers but can/will BRIC or EU show global leadership? Do we need a more nuanced understanding of “power” to help us hold MNCs to account
Superpowers matter. They are not merely historical entities or relics of the Cold War. Instead, the superpowers of the Cold War can help us understand the role of superpowers today. For example, we know that superpowers operate as part of networks – they have relationships with other players.
In looking towards the rising superpowers, questions are raised as to the various roles of a superpower (not just economic). For example, could the BRICs or the EU ever show moral leadership on a global level, as superpowers in the past have tried to.
We now have a broader understanding of power. For example, power is not confined to national governments and it is not always exercised through military hardware (hard power).
Interactive: Students should return to the list that they made at the beginning of their presentation. How would they define a superpower now? Do all of the superpowers that they listed fit with this definition? Are there superpowers that they would now add to that list?