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11 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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Explain why defence spending is seen as crucial to the development of super power status (4) |
- critical to the exercise of hard power - enables territorial expansion and protection of current territory - this in turn brings wealth through acquisition of resources - allowing the growth/maintenance of the economy needed to develop superpower status |
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Assess to what extent the superpowers’ rising demand for physical resources has led to both environmental and political changes (12) |
- variety of political and environmental challenges; direct political challenges to military power over key resources (oil), challenges to independence of political action (Russia vs Ukraine), challenges of the environmental impact of exploiting a contested resource base - physical resources; land, water, minerals, energy - no superpower is self sufficient in physical resources but they vary in their dependency on imports to maintain their economies - challenges exist both domestically and internationally A02 - governments of superpowers need to legitimate power by maintaining economic growth or they face internal political challenges to the gov which may lead to change - maintenance of economic growth inevitable leads to environmental change; mostly negative due to increased extraction and consumption of resources (growth of car ownership in China) - long term environmental consequences; habitat destruction, production of greenhouse gases. Short term; pollution of water ways - superpowers active in searching out global resources using TNSs as an instrument of extending their control (US oil companies in Ecuador) - superpowers use hard and soft power to establish control of resources and this results in political challenges and tensions between superpowers - exploitation of physical resources on domestic territory of superpowers negatively impacts environment and thus political legitimacy domestically (fracking, oil shale exploitation) |
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Explain how soft power can be used to maintain superpower status (4) |
- soft power refers to power of persuasion, making other countries follow by making policies attractive and appealing - can include cultural attractiveness, diplomacy, TNC exposure - media used to promote a particular image and message |
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What is a Uni-polar world |
- dominated by one superpower e.g British empire or US |
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What is a Bi-polar world |
- two superpowers with opposing ideologies e.g capitalism vs communism vie for power - e.g USA & USSR during Cold War |
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What is a Multi-polar world |
- many superpowers and emerging powers compete for power in different regions |
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Explain the role of superpowers in international crisis response (4) |
- a key characteristic of a superpower is that weaker countries look to it to act in times of crisis - crisis response can be needed due to natural disaster, famine or a serious disease outbreak - an example of this is with the 2014 Ebola epidemic, when the USA, UK and France led the crisis response in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, deploying military and medical assets - another example is the 2010 Haiti earthquake where the USA used its naval and Air Force assets to respond to the disaster with medical food and infrastructure - this expectation to help (particularly ally countries) is a heavy responsibility and huge economic cost - China very reluctant to act this way despite its rising power |
Ebola Haiti |
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Assess the importance of military and economic alliance in maintaining superpower status (8) |
- alliances are very important to maintaining superpower status, even to hyper powers such as the US as if adds to superpowers strength Military - military alliances involve the formation of treaties that involve mutual defenders - US has broad global military alliance, allowing it to position powerful air & naval assets around the world - NATO: US, Canada, EU; if one member gets attacked other will come to assist - ANZUS treaty: US, Australia, New Zealand; cooperate on military matters in Pacific Economic - achieved through free trade agreements (trade blocs) - EU: 28 member states; free trade and movement of goods and people - NAFTA: USA, Mexico, Canada; companies have moved manufacturing plants to Mexico, lowering costs - ASEAN: 10 SE Asian countries; encourage greater cooperation between states and increase economic growth |
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Assess the extent to which geopolitical power stems from a range of countries human and physical characteristics (12) |
- a superpower is a country with the ability to project its dominating power and influence anywhere in the world - 6 superpower characteristics; economic, political, military, cultural, demographic and resources. - resources are a physical characteristic; control of access to physical resources provides inputs for economic growth. Essential for military power - human factors may be seen as more important as there are more of them, all others are human - economic; large GDP, influence as potential market and home of TNCs which creates FDI - political; ability to influence policies of other countries through dominance of negotiations - mackinders heartland theory; whoever controls heartland (Russia, Eastern Europe) controls majority of physical and Human Resources, so will be leading super power - persuades USA UK and EU that Russia needs to be contained |
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Explain two ways in which nations have maintained power and influence over other countries (6) |
- hard power: Using military and economic influence to force a country to act in a particular way; e.g USA invaded Iraq in 2003 in second Gulf war when economic sanctions had failed to persuade Saddam Hussein to change policies - soft power: more subtle persuasion of countries to act in a particular way on the basis that the persuader is respected and appealing; e.g UK maintains power through cultural influence including films, TV and literature such as Harry Potter. Has one of the largest networks of diplomats and embassies in the world and the City of London dominates international finance, banking and law |
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Assess the extent to which China can claim to be a super power (12) |
- a superpower is a country with ability to project its dominating power and influence anywhere in the world - 6 characteristics; economic, political, cultural, military and natural resources - China has 2nd largest GDP and rapidly growing economy & has powerful manufacturing economy - military ambitions to build blue water navy, very large population - increasingly engages with other parts of the world; e.g investment into Sub Saharan Africa, based on exploiting their abundant & undeveloped physical resources However - due to its large population GDP per capita only 10% of USAs. - ageing population combined with one child policy may cause economy to collapse - unwilling to engage with global problems such as environmental issues as focus is on economical development, however at paris climate summit 2015 China agreed to reduce emissions after 2030 - reluctant to participate in global action procedures such as intervening in war and taking action in terms of crisis response, despite its rising power |
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