Talk:Superpower/Archive 1

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Re: "Superpowers in History"

From my understanding, most people in a position of authority on the matter do not retroactively apply the term 'superpower' to any of the states listed, or indeed any country before the 20th century. A superpower is supposed to be able to exercise power on a global scale, which is what makes them different from normal world powers. Before a suitable level of technology was obtained, this was simply not possible for any of histories previous powers, which would seem to delegate them to mere world power status. As an example, both Rome and China were expansive powers at the same time, but there was no significant interaction between the two because neither was able to project power to the others part of the world. It seems unfair and inaccurate to label either a superpower using the common definition (stated at the beginning of the article). Of all those listed, only Britain might be able to justify a claim on being retroactively granted the title of 'superpower,' but even their power-projection capabilities were severely limited in many parts of the world.

[edit: I just recently spoke to a couple Political Scientists, and they both agreed that the term Superpower can not be applied to any country prior to WWII, that those countries were only 'Great Powers']

While what you're saying is completely true, the term superpower can be applied to Rome, Ancient China et al because they had power similar to that of say the US and the USSR in terms of their region. For example Rome could never project their power globally because they believed the area after Gibraltar was the end of the world! You get that point that it's a relative wording. --JDnCoke 15:58, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

I don't think the potential superpowers in the world including the PRC, India, Brazil and the EU only. Russia should also be considered as one of them due to its large area and population. Its economy is growing fast too. Besides, it is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Concil which marks its notable political influence in the world.

I just wanna say this is extremely American. Meaning, get your head out of your ass and realize the superpowers before America. Mike Sarfati

Extremely stupid. The title of the article is "Superpower", not "Post USSR collapse American foreign politics". Someone please rewrite this! -217.215.132.201

Anthere, do you really think we need those two links here? They are both included in the Second Superpower article. -º¡º

yes I think so. Hum...let's wait to see what happens with that meme before any further move. ant

However, many observers of the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq would conclude that the US military has proven its ability to resoundingly defeat enemies who are using asymmetric tactics. Likewise, the large number of Al-Qaeda arrested and the fact that their have been no major terrorist attacks on US soil since the War on Terror began demonstrate that conducting global terrorism is very difficult and subject to substantial disruption by an enemy with superpower resources.

See comments above - this article should be about superpowers in general, over all history - not about a couple of US wars in the last couple of years. Further these "counterpoints" are at best peripheral - they do not rebut the preceding paragraphs... Martin 13:35 Apr 25, 2003 (UTC)

China does not have a "small nuclear deterrance". It's the world's third nuclear power. Isn't it? - Yves Marques Teixeira

I think that France is the world's third nuclear power, and China is fourth.--Todd Kloos 04:48, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I reverted the following version by Finlander, with a critique of it on their talk. My critique's shortcomings reflect mostly my carelessly tripping over their pose of (two versions of) it being primarily abt the desirability of substituting "United States of America" for "America". (Absurd, pointless here, and POV, IMO, but also in any case a red herring here.)

United States of America was allegedly attacked by the Islamist terrorist network Al-Qaida in 2001. The event resulted in a new policy of fighting a perpetual "War on Terrorism" world-wide. First the Taliban government in Afghanistan was brought down, and in the early 2003 Iraq was invaded and the regime of Saddam Hussein dismantled.

My attention is going elsewhere; perhaps someone who follows this article can edit-for-the-enemy with Finlander. --Jerzy 09:49, 2004 Jan 4 (UTC)