Globalisation and it's impact on Superpowers
Globalisation on it's most simple level is said to 'shrink the world' as organisations, nations and industries come closer together and rely heavily on one another. Countries now depend more so on one another than ever before in history, a collapse of one nations economy can cause a domino affect, crippling entire continents as a whole. One key effect of globalisation is its ability to turn regular nations into global superpowers, a superpower can easily be defined as a nation or group of nations (such as the European Union) that hold massive amounts of power militarily, economically, culturally and technologically. If a nation contains each of these aspects it can be considered a Global Superpower, the current and only superpower on this Earth is the United States, this is due to its main rival the former Soviet Union being relegated to a World Power after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Its clear that globalisation affects which nations become superpowers, but why is this?
To begin with globalisation has helped bring the worlds economies together, as previously stated the majority of nations now rely on one another economies in order to assist their own. An easy way nations can assist their economies is via trade agreements, for example the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement all allow their members to trade between one another without having to pay tariffs. Therefore a nation can increase its income by trading with a wider financial market boosting its GDP and placing on the path to becoming a economic superpower. China is predicted to become a world superpower in the years to come and it mainly has its economy to thank for this. Before globalisation hit heavily in the far-east China was a nation of huge size with a small economy, however in the decades following World War 2 its economy has sky rocketed mainly due to its creation and distribution of cheap goods world wide, thus it is a potential superpower as the vast majority of nations rely on Chinese goods , especially countries such as Brazil and Thailand which fail to produce sufficient amounts of cheap goods. The fact that globalisation inter-twines the worlds economies means that states are far less likely to go to war with one another, this is known as the Dell theory of conflict prevention, the last time two major nations went to war is over 50 years ago, thus it can be said that globalisation assures peace between the majority of first world countries.
Secondly globalisation has allowed for greater military co-operation between nation states. In the past the key Realism idea that 'each nation pursues its own interests' was accurate, never the less once globalisation allowed nations to communicate with ease this soon changed. This can be seen as former Superpower Great Britain has been working hand in hand with the United Stated for years, additionally nations which were once rivals also work together , e.g the United States and Japan. This cooperation may be initiated not to give the smaller states more power but instead to aid the already powerful superpower in order for them to act as an effective so called 'World Policeman'. The idea that not all states look for power is a key point of liberalism. The ease of communication and sharing intelligence brought about by globalisation has meant that some nations which may have once been considered militarily insignificant are now major players in the political scene, this is in reference to nuclear weapons. Quick and easy communication has meant that nations such as Israel, India and Pakistan have all been able to acquire and construct weapons of mass destruction, making them world powers by default, its likely that without globalisation on the scale it is today this would have been averted.
Globalisation has also helped nations become extremely powerful in reference culture. Before globalisation the cultures and traditions of far away countries had little affect on other nations, however the new forms of media that came along side mass globalisation has lead to many nations being seen as culturally powerful or influential. For example during the cold war the two superpowers , the USA and the USSR, exerted their influence and culture on Europe. The repercussion of this being that Eastern and Western European traditions now greatly differ from one another, the United States influenced the West to be addicted to consumer goods and american media, whilst the Soviet Union influenced the East to be hard working and respectful of their past Slavic traditions. Despite culture not being on the same level as military power when considering what nation is a superpower it is still an important feature to remember, a nation which is heavily influenced by a foreign culture may feel as if it has more in common with said foreign culture than its own past. For example Canadians may struggle culturally to stand out against the behemoth which is the United States. Recent Surveys and Polls have found out that the top three most culturally influential countries are the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, all three have global influence when it comes to culture.
Overall its clear to see that globalisation has had a massive affect on the worlds Global Superpowers and general world powers, the reliance on one another's economies coupled with world wide military cooperation, ensures that two major powers are unlikely to go war directly with one another (although a proxy war is always a viable solution). Globalisation can also be credited for mass democratisation, this liberal idea as so far ensured peace for the majority of the world. In all globalisation can be seen as a positive and a negative, many aspects such as the sharing of nuclear technology have pros and cons attached to them, e.g a con being that they have devastating affects a pro being that they act as effective deterrents. Within a few decades it is likely that continued globalisation will bring forward new superpowers, China and its grand economy, Brazil and its vast natural resources or perhaps India and it's enormous workforce and industrial capacity.
