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A superpower is a state with the ability to influence events or project power on a wide scale. In modern terms, this may imply an entity with a strong economy, a large population, and strong armed forces, including air power and satellite capabilities, and a huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Superpowers often have colonies, or satellite states.
The term superpower appeared as a neologism in 1922. Prior to World War II, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the British Empire were sometimes labeled as superpowers, although the more common term was great powers.
After 1945 the victorious powers — the Republic of China, France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States of America — gained nominal superpower status as the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and as those with a veto over Security Council decisions. But due to economic stresses, the loss of overseas colonial empires and civil war, not all of these states could maintain their relative hegemony.
As the Cold War developed, it became clear that only two indisputable superpowers remained: the United States and the Soviet Union. This situation lasted until the the political collapse of the Soviet Union circa 1991.
United States
In the post-Cold War era, the United States could be considered the world's sole remaining superpower. The enormous gap in military and economic power between the United States and other individual countries prompts some analysts to label the US as a hyperpower. Because of the huge concentration of power in one state, some historians have occasionaly drawn analogy to a Pax Americana, with the United States as the guarantor of world peace and a mediator in disputes between other states. This is a direct reference to the Pax Britannica and the Pax Romana of the past, when Great Britain and the Roman Empire, respectively, were dominant powers deeply involved in the security of surrounding nations. This view is not universally held, nor easily defined. Others have a more negative view of the United States and see it not as a guarantor of peace but as an imperialist power imposing its will on other states.
Superpowers in history
Although the term superpower is a recent one, the word has been retrospectively applied to previous military powers, especially the Roman Empire and Imperial China.
Potential superpowers
Countries which some analysts predict could achieve superpower status in the coming decades:
- The growing European Union, which has one of the largest economies in the world and nuclear capabilities (France and the United Kingdom), but is still too fragmented to be considered a single power.
- China, which has nuclear capabilities, the world's largest army, the world's largest population, and a rapidly growing economy.
- Russia, the most powerful of the countries of the former Soviet Union, maintains a huge nuclear arsenal.
- India, which has a population of over a billion, a small nuclear arsenal, as well as a growing economy.
- Japan, which has one of the world's most powerful economies and has increased military funding in recent years.
- Brazil, which has a large population, and the capacity to go nuclear.
- Worldwide public opinion has been described as a Second Superpower.
Superpowers are also the fictional superhuman abilities that distinguish most superheroes such as Superman and supervillains such as Magneto from ordinary people. Typical superpowers include superhuman strength, speed, or stamina; the ability to fly; or abilities such as X-ray vision.
de:Weltmacht
es:Superpotencia
fr:Superpuissance
sv:Supermakt
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