Superpower

A little old man in a tiny little studio in 1550 Italy paints away on cheap canvas. No one would suspect that the simple act of him painting led to imperialization. Most people would imagine a pompous, slightly obese emperor moving chess pieces across a world map deciding which country he wants to snatch up next. While imperialization is the act of one country controlling another, it did not start with great men in high castles but among the ballet dancers and scientists and Enlightenment…

The United States enjoyed a meteoric rise in global power during the early 1900’s. Despite a brief challenge from the Soviet Union from 1922-1991, they have remained the one constant power in the international system. To this day, they remain in control of the world due to the power they possess in the forms of military power, economic power, and soft power (Boyer et al. 36). While the United States currently operates in a unipolar world, one in which they are the true hegemon, power is…

The United States emerged as the sole leading power at the time the Soviet Union dissolves into fifteen different countries across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Since the US’s dominant role has remained for almost three decades, one may ask, is American hegemony still as influential as it was during the systemic change in 1989, if it is subject to declining, how has the structure of the international political system changed and who may replace US as the apex? As mentioned previously, in a…

After World War Two, the United States and Soviet Union emerged as the two Superpowers because they were the most powerful countries in the world at that time. The Cold War was a conflict between these Superpowers in political, conceptual, and economic values. Competition between the two Superpowers had a large impact on many European countries. The Superpowers greatly affected many European countries including Germany, Czechoslovakia, and France through their conflict with one another.…

Is sovereignty necessarily absolute? Sovereignty is a term used to describe the uncontrolled power through which an independent state is governed (Krasner, 2001). Sovereignty also calls for the supreme political will and authority that a state has in its administration and the control of the constitution (Krasner, 2001). In other words, Sovereignty provides the states with the power to do just about anything that pleases the states without being accountable to different nations. For…

Watson attempts to create a historical survey of the states systems that were formed in Europe and then spread to the “civilized” world. This states systems was challenged after World War II by the anti-colonial revolution and the demands of the Third World states for a new international order. Watson tries to move beyond on the mechanistic and sterile concept of international system to the more focused and perhaps more complicated concept of international society. Watson focuses on the global…

CENTRAL THESIS OF STRUCTURAL REALISM Structural realism as its name suggest seeks to study the structure of the international system and its effects on the behavior of States. The two main characteristics of the international system are Anarchy and Relative Capacity (Power). Waltz adopts three principles from the domestic political structure in his analysis namely; the principle by which the system is ordered, the function each unit fulfills and each unit capacity or ability to act. He concluded…

One of the core ideologies in International Relations has been Realism. Realism focuses on self interest, which is defined by the state seeking power and gaining complete sovereignty. According to Hans J. Morgenthau’s “Politics Among Nations, The Struggle for Power and Peace,” there are six important actors that cultivate this concept. These actors are the state, anarchy, self interest, human nature, rationale and force, which are what make a functioning society. Despite the origins and use of…

Today, the international community revolves around a state’s overall ability to to reach a hegemonic state, which refers to the overwhelming power a state has over other states, therefore establishing its dominance and influence other nations for fear of losing their sovereignty. This idea is known as Realism and according to Eric Shiraev and Vladislav Zubok, the authors of International Relations 2nd edition, “Realism is an approach to IR that focuses on states and their interests, balance of…

My thesis for this essay is that Thucydides has not created a political ideology in his work, but created the notion real politik that is still being used in international politics widely and that certain politics are still being repeated. This essay will be focusing on the book by Thucydides on the history of the Peloponnesian Wars and will create arguments that would connect to nowadays international politics scene. These arguments are important due to their insights on how Thucydides…