The Death of Superpowers

The US will remain the strongest nation for a long time to come. But the rise of Russia, China, and Germany is undermining the concept of the Sole Superpower on earth.  We have four equally strong players in the international theater now.  However, the twenty first century will be flagged as the century that “Superpowers” lost their obedient followers and smaller countries learned to shift their allegiance and negotiate their loyalty for highest bid. 

Background:

We grew up during the era of the cold war between two Superpowers “The USA” and “The USSR”. That was during the second half of the twentieth century.  However, after the humiliating defeat in Vietnam in the mid-seventies, the USA continued to retreat from the direct involvement of many major conflicts, causing them to lose Iran, Nicaragua, and other strategic conflicts.  In 1991, with the withdrawal of the USSR from Afghanistan, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and the subsequent loss of control of the Eastern block of Europe the Soviet Union was declared dead.  This was followed by a dramatic regime change from the communist party to the shady nationalist movement led by Bores Yalcin.

Both the USA and Russia attempted to regain their Superpower status as the years went on, to varying degrees of success.  The USA went through a few successful military ventures. Some reasonably justify cause, while others solely to show muscles.  Some examples: President Reagan invaded Grenada, a small Caribbean island, in 1983; President Bush, Sr. invaded Panama in 1989; and the removal of Saddam’s troops from Kuwait in 1991.

Meanwhile Russia, under Putin’s leadership, gained a lot of diplomatic, economic, and military strength.  Putin and Russia successfully interfered in Georgia, Ukraine, taking back the vital Crimea Peninsula and a significant part of Eastern Ukraine. In addition, Russia built two strategic bases at the Syrian Mediterranean coastal region and totally controls the game on the ground.

The horrible attack on 9/11/2001 on US soil further shocked the image of the traditional secure untouchable Superpower. In addition, the questionable results of the invasion of Afghanistan at the end of 2001 and the horrific results of the occupation of Iraq in spring of 2003, makes us wonder how powerful is what is left of the “Superpowers”?

While the USA and Russia were busy making a mess in every spot around the globe, China and Germany were actively improving their respected roles in the international community. China is gradually and rationally converting to a free market economy, and is involved in Asia and Africa in strictly a business capacity with zero politics. This approach gave China an easy and respectful  relationship with all nations and a strong advisory voice. The dramatic unification of Germany in October 1990, followed by the election and rise of a strong female Chancellor Angela Merkel changed the status and the power of the new Germany in both Europe and the world at large.

The increasing role and the strength of China and Germany, and the resurrection of Russia, are going to be at the expense of the USA only. This will lead to a new world of multiple Superpowers rather than one or two dominant Superpowers. Each one of them has its own economic and security interests.  These Superpowers are not going to be measured by their nuclear capabilities and missiles heads, but rather by their economic strength and by the respect of other nations.

There are many other factors weakening the influence of the Superpowers, including the growing power of the international corporation, globalization, the massive power of free information through sophisticated social media, and the power of the impact one individual can make. The rise of these factors are taking place at the expense of continued deterioration of the UN, the disrespect of sovereignty of the independent third world nations and its borders, and finally the use of religious and sectarian differences to weaken sovereign nations.

There was a time when the USA was arguably the strongest Superpower in the world, but today we live in an era when the US cannot intimidate small nations like North Korea or defeat ISIS by itself. Mr. Trump’s style and rhetoric is not giving any positive results, rather it is pushing the remainder of the allies away and weakening the role of the USA globally. The traditional allies to the US are publicly disagreeing with much of the United States’ policies and working together without the US to move forward on global agendas.

The USA will remain the strongest nation for a long time to come. But the rise of Russia, China, and Germany is undermining the concept of the Sole Superpower on earth.  We have four equally strong players in the international theater now.  These powers are: USA, Russia, China, and Germany. With India, Brazil and Turkey designated to rise to superpower status in the future as well. Each of these powers has their own followers. However, the twenty first century will be flagged as the century that “Superpowers” lost their obedient followers and smaller countries learned to shift their allegiance and negotiate their loyalty for a higher price.

 

Mohammad Hussain Alnajafi

mhalnajafi.org

September 10, 2017

 

#Superpower   #Germany  #Russia, #USA  #Mohammad_Hussain_Alnajafi

 

2 Comments on “The Death of Superpowers

  1. In regards to Germany you can certainly say its the major power in the EU economically. Unlike Britain it does not have a history of showing its military strength in foreign interventions with the US. However, Germany like the other EU nations are still very weak compared to Russia and the US. Germany is home to over 30,000 US troops as part of NATO and there deterrent against ‘Russian aggression’. They cannot be compared to Russia or China if they are in need of a foreign military base in their country. You can argue Germany’s sovereignty is not the same as Russia’s or China’s. Another example is the Iran nuclear deal as Germany are part of the p5+1 alongside other European nations and though they disagree with the US on leaving the deal and against US sanctions, there has been nothing Germany and the other countries can do to either help Iran or change Americas mind.
    In terms of China, there economy has been growing the most throughout the years and their economy is predicted to be the biggest in the world during the early 2020’s. However, the US has been trying to restrict this growth by putting tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods and imposing sanctions on certain investments. Economic restrictions and tariffs has been a ploy used by the US for a while to impose there strength on certain countries that dont play by their rules. Recent examples being Turkey and Iran. With Turkey being warned of further sanctions if they go ahead with the purchase of the Russian made s-400 ground missiles. Though China’s military is huge, its defence budget and weapons systems are not to be compared with the USA’s. They have only one foreign base located in Africa and they dont like to get involved too much into foreign affairs such as the Middle East.
    I think no one can argue that when it comes to world super powers, the US and Russia are the only two in the world with all issues counted such as the military, economy, technological and influence it can exert. There is no doubt that the Syria crises has shifted the balance towards Russia as without Russia’s interference, you could argue the US would have liked it to end in a similar way to Iraq. The US has also had to impose sanctions on Russia on a large scale plus ditching the INF treaty as they know its becoming a huge challenger to them on a world scale. Their new weapons systems are being bought by major countries such as Turkey, India and Qatar who are meant to be US allies. Russia’s self confidence in their power has also seen them ditch the dollar in many trade deals, instead using their local currencies and gold as an alternative. The US is still the most powerful country in the world when it comes to influencing other countries, their huge military bases around the world, their economic strength as a tool to support or undermine countries. This will carry on for many years to come, but on the international stage and foreign interventions, the US will have less freedom to do as they wish like they did in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Russia and even China will be hot on their heels finding a different solution.

    • Dear Zaid
      Thank you for taking interest in this blog. Your comment is worth to be working on it to become blog by itself. Please do that because I see a very thoughtful information and opinion the world should hear.

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