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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 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.

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.Danilovic, Vesna. "When the Stakes Are High—Deterrence and Conflict among Major Powers", University of Michigan Press (2002), p 27 (PDF chapter downloads). 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:Webster, Charles K, Sir (ed), British Diplomacy 1813–1815: Selected Documents Dealing with the Reconciliation of Europe, G Bell (1931), p307.

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.Danilovic, Vesna - When the Stakes Are High - Deterrence and Conflict among Major Powers, University of Michigan Press (2002), p228 - (PDF copy).

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.Multi-polarity vs Bipolarity, Subsidiary hypotheses, Balance of Power Others, such as Russia and Austria-Hungary, slowly stagnated.History of Europe Austria-Hungary 1870–1914.A Short History of Russia. 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 at best 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.Power Transitions as the cause of war. 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.Globalization and Autonomy by Julie Sunday, McMaster University. 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 confined to their region. 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 GermanyOtte M, Greve J (2000) A Rising Middle Power?: German Foreign Policy in Transformation, 1989-1999, St. Martin's PressSperling J (2001) Neither Hegemony nor Dominance: Reconsidering German Power in Post Cold-War Europe, CUPDottori G, Amorosi M (2004) La NATO dopo l'11 settembre and JapanEr LP (2006) Japan's Human Security Rolein Southeast Asia sometimes being called middle powers.

Characteristics

There are no set and defined characteristics of a great power. These characteristics have often been treated as empirical, self-evident to the assessor.Waltz, Kenneth N - Theory of International Politics, McGraw-Hill (1979) - p131 However, this approach has the disadvantage of subjectivity. As a result, there have been attempts to derive some common 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 succinctly expressed by the historian AJP Taylor:Taylor, AJP - The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848-1918, Oxford: Clarendon (1954), xxiv

Later writers have expanded this test, attempting to define power in terms of overall military, economic, and political capacity.Organski, AFK - World Politics, Knopf (1958) Kenneth Waltz the founder of Neo-realism 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.Danilovic, op. cit., p225

Permanent membership on the United Nations Security Council is currently one of the hallmarks of contemporary great power status.http://www.un.org/sc/members.asp

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 multi-polarity conceptualization:contained on page 204 in: Kertesz and Fitsomons (eds) - Diplomacy in a Changing World, University of Notre Dame Press (1959)

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, he wrote:Iggers and von Moltke "In the Theory and Practice of History", Bobbs-Merril (1973)

These positions have been the subject of criticism.Danilovic, op. cit., p226 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.

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.Stoll, Richard J - State Power, World Views, and the Major Powers, Contained in: Stoll and Ward (eds) - Power in World Politics, Lynne Rienner (1989)

Status dimension

Formal or informal acknowledgment of a nation's status as a great power.

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.Domke, William K - Power, Political Capacity, and Security in the Global System, Contained in: Stoll and Ward (eds) - Power in World Politics, Lynn Rienner (1989)

A further option is to examine a state's willingness to act as a great power.Domke, William K - Power, Political Capacity, and Security in the Global System - p161, Contained in: Stoll and Ward (eds) - Power in World Politics, Lynn Rienner (1989) 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.

Another important criteria throughout history is that great powers have enough influence to be included in discussions of political and diplomatic questions of the day, and to 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.

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, and China had built up to great power status during the post-war period, with large growths in economic and military power. Germany is considered by experts to be an economic power.

It is considered by Chancellor Angela Merkel, former president Johannes Rau and leading media of the country as a middle power in Europe.

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).

Current great powers

Although the powers listed below are sometimes referred to by authorities as great powers, there is no unanimous agreement among authorities.

Yong Deng and Thomas G. Moore (2004) "China Views Globalization: Toward a New Great-Power Politics?" The Washington Quarterly

Encarta - Great Powers

UW Press: Korea's Future and the Great PowersPINR - Uzbekistan and the Great Powers

Kramer, Martin (2000) "Don't Absolve the Great Powers" Middle East Forum Vol 7 No 4

(also referred to as a superpower)

;Economic great powers
With considerable economies and military forces the following countries are often considered to be great powers despite a lack of nuclear weapons.

Richard N. Haass, "Asia’s overlooked Great Power", Project Syndicate April 20, 2007.