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121-486: Kenen organized the unincorporated American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs (AZCPA) in 1951. AZCPA was primarily a "public relations" organization, emitting numerous news releases. In 1954, AZC divested itself of AZCPA "because its leaders did not want to use tax-exempt funds for lobbying." Following its independence, AZCPA began involving American Jewish organizations not formally committed to Zionism in order to increase its credibility and separate itself from AZC's role as

242-674: A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) coup, Nasser and his Society of Free Officers were in contact with CIA operatives beforehand Nasser maintained links with potential allies, from the Egyptian Communist Party to the Muslim Brotherhood on the right. Nasser's friendship with CIA officers in Cairo led Washington to overestimate its influence in Egypt. That Nasser was close to CIA officers led them to view Nasser as

363-729: A Nobel Peace Prize . Analysts have argued that the crisis may have emboldened the USSR, prompting the Soviet invasion of Hungary . The Suez Canal was opened in 1869, after ten years of work financed by the French and Egyptian governments. The canal was operated by the Suez Company , an Egyptian-chartered company; the area surrounding the canal remained sovereign Egyptian territory and the only land-bridge between Africa and Asia. The canal instantly became strategically important, as it provided

484-404: A sovereign state or supranational union that holds a dominant position characterized by the ability to exert influence and project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political, and cultural strength as well as diplomatic and soft power influence. Traditionally, superpowers are preeminent among the great powers . While

605-524: A 1955 meeting that "Nasser was a young man without much political experience, but if we give him the benefit of the doubt, we might be able to exert a beneficial influence on him, both for the sake of the Communist movement, and ... the Egyptian people". Traditionally, most of the equipment in the Egyptian military had come from Britain, but Nasser's desire to break British influence in Egypt meant that he

726-575: A CIA "asset". In turn, the British who were aware of Nasser's CIA ties resented this relationship, which they viewed as an American attempt to push them out of Egypt. The reason for Nasser's courting of the CIA before the coup was his hope the Americans would act as a restraining influence on the British, should Britain decide on intervention to put an end to the revolution (until Egypt renounced it in 1951,

847-926: A Middle Eastern arms race. Eisenhower very much valued the Tripartite Declaration as a way of keeping peace in the Near East. In 1950, in order to limit the extent that the Arabs and the Israelis could engage in an arms race , the three nations which dominated the arms trade in the non-Communist world, namely the United States, the United Kingdom and France, had signed the Tripartite Declaration, where they had committed themselves to limiting how much arms they could sell in

968-739: A great power state is capable of exerting its influence globally, superpowers are states so influential that no significant action can be taken by the global community without first considering the positions of the superpowers on the issue. In 1944, during World War II , the term was first applied to the British Empire , the Soviet Union , and the United States . During the Cold War , the British Empire dissolved, leaving

1089-965: A middleman for the Israeli government. These efforts met with success, with AZCPA able to organize multiple meetings between Jewish leaders and the Eisenhower administration during the Suez Crisis , although they did not substantially change Eisenhower's approach to the crisis. AZCPA was renamed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in 1959, reflecting its position that a commitment to defending Israel now extended beyond American Zionist organizations to all Jewish organizations. AZC sent monthly newsletters entitled Near East Report and Israel Digest to every member of Congress. These newsletters were found to be funded in an indirect, circuitous manner by

1210-458: A new superpower. Some political scientists and other commentators have even suggested that such countries might simply be emerging powers , as opposed to potential superpowers. The European Union has been called a "regulatory superpower" due to the Brussels effect . The record of such predictions has not been perfect. For example, in the 1980s, some commentators thought Japan would become

1331-465: A primary position on the global stage. Despite attempts to create multinational coalitions or legislative bodies (such as the United Nations), it became increasingly clear that the superpowers had very different visions about what the post-war world ought to look like and after the withdrawal of British aid to Greece in 1947, the United States took the lead in containing Soviet expansion in

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1452-464: A problem-solver, the US itself has now become a problem for the rest of the world." Since the 2010s, as a result of asymmetric polarization within the United States, as well as globally perceived U.S. foreign policy failures, and China's growing influence around the world, some academics and geopolitical experts have argued that the United States may already be experiencing a decay in its soft power around

1573-711: A region once dominated by Moscow for centuries. Dramatic changes occurred in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc during the 1980s and early 1990s , with perestroika and glasnost , the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, and finally the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. As early as 1970, Andrei Amalrik had made predictions of Soviet collapse , and Emmanuel Todd made

1694-946: A report "Britain and the Suez Canal" revealing government perception of the Suez area. It reiterated the strategic necessity of the canal to the UK, including the need to meet military obligations under the Manila Pact in the Far East and the Baghdad Pact in Iraq, Iran, or Pakistan. The report noted the canal had been used in wartime to transport materiel and personnel from and to the UK's close allies in Australia and New Zealand, and might be vital for such purposes in future. The report cites

1815-754: A result of the incident, Nasser began allowing raids into Israel by the Palestinian militants. Egypt established fedayeen bases not just in Gaza but also in Jordan and Lebanon, from which incursions could be launched with a greater amount of plausible deniability on the part of Nasser's Egypt. The raids triggered a series of Israeli reprisal operations , which ultimately contributed to the Suez Crisis. Starting in 1949 owing to shared nuclear research, France and Israel started to move towards an alliance. Following

1936-1001: A separate bilateral agreement. Following the Japanese attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur , the Russians sent reinforcements from their fleet in the Baltic Sea . The British denied the Russian Baltic Fleet use of the canal after the Dogger Bank incident and forced it to steam around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, giving the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces time to consolidate their position. The importance of

2057-607: A similar prediction in 1976. Due to Russia's capabilities of conventional warfare during the Russian invasion of Ukraine Russia was compared to a " Potemkin Superpower" by Paul Krugman . Russia is a nuclear-weapon state . The Suez Crisis of 1956 is considered by some commentators to be the beginning of the end of Britain's period as a superpower, but other commentators have pointed much earlier such as in World War I ,

2178-491: A strong friend of Israel, urged an alliance with that nation against Egypt. Prior to 1955, Nasser had pursued efforts to reach peace with Israel and had worked to prevent cross-border Palestinian attacks. In February 1955, Unit 101 , an Israeli unit under Ariel Sharon , conducted a raid on the Egyptian Army headquarters in Gaza in retaliation for a Palestinian fedayeen attack that killed an Israeli civilian. As

2299-719: A subject related to a Jewish organization is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War , the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and as the Sinai War in Israel , was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so with the primary objective of re-opening

2420-572: A superpower due to its large GDP and high economic growth at the time . However, Japan's economy crashed in 1991 , creating a long period of economic slump in the country which has become known as the Lost Decades . Increasing doubts have emerged around the potential of Russia to gain superpower status given its declining economy, severe military underperformance during the invasion of Ukraine , and its loss of influence in Central Asia,

2541-536: A superpower conflict back to a local problem based on local disputes. Disengagement can create buffers between superpowers that might prevent conflicts or reduce the intensity of conflicts. The term usually refers to various policy proposals during the Cold War which attempted to defuse tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States, largely because of the risk of any superpower conflict to escalate to nuclear war . Examples of one-sided disengagement include when Joseph Stalin decided to end Soviet support for

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2662-524: Is largely due to the policy of the West in building up and flattering him". In a May 1956 gathering of French veterans, Louis Mangin spoke in place of the unavailable Minister of Defence and gave a violently anti-Nasser speech, which compared the Egyptian leader to Hitler. He accused Nasser of plotting to rule the entire Middle East and of seeking to annex Algeria, whose "people live in community with France". Mangin urged France to stand up to Nasser, and being

2783-413: Is on track to directly contest the US role as the center for economic trade and commerce. The term potential superpowers has been applied by scholars and other qualified commentators to the possibility of several political entities achieving superpower status in the 21st century. Due to their large markets, growing military strength, economic potential, and influence in international affairs, China,

2904-400: Is regarded by historians to be a political and diplomatic disaster for the British Empire, as it led to large-scale international condemnation, including extensive pressure from the United States and Soviet Union. This forced the British and the French to withdraw in embarrassment and cemented the increasingly- bipolar Cold War politics between the Soviet Union and United States. In the 1960s,

3025-536: The Cold War . The two countries opposed each other ideologically, politically, militarily, and economically. The Soviet Union promoted the ideology of Marxism–Leninism , planned economy , and a one-party state while the United States promoted the ideologies of liberal democracy and the free market in a capitalist market economy . This was reflected in the Warsaw Pact and NATO military alliances, respectively, as most of Europe became aligned with either

3146-774: The Depression of 1920–21 , the Partition of Ireland , the return of the pound sterling to the gold standard at its prewar parity in 1925, the Fall of Singapore , the loss of wealth from World War II , the end of Lend-Lease Aid from the United States in 1945, the postwar Age of Austerity , the Winter of 1946–47 , the beginning of decolonization and the independence of British India as other key points in Britain's decline and loss of superpower status. The Suez Crisis in particular

3267-571: The Handover of Hong Kong to China was seen by experts as the definitive end of the British Empire. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom today has retained global soft power in the 21st century, including a formidable military. The United Kingdom continues to have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council alongside only four other powers, and is one of the nine nuclear powers. Its capital city, London, continues to be regarded as one of

3388-610: The Joint Chiefs of Staff declared at a planning session about what to do in the event of a Soviet invasion of the Near East: "Where will the staff come from? It will take a lot of stuff to do a job there". As a consequence, American diplomats favoured the creation of a NATO-type organisation in the Near East to provide the necessary military power to deter the Soviets from invading. The Eisenhower administration, even more than

3509-601: The Ottoman Empire agreed to permit international shipping to pass freely through the canal, in time of war and peace. The Convention came into force in 1904, the same year as the Entente Cordiale between Britain and France. Despite this convention, the strategic importance of the canal and its control were proven during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, after Japan and Britain entered into

3630-749: The Silk Road , although little information reached them. Isolated civilizations in relation to the Afro-Eurasia . Isolated civilization in relation to Afro-Eurasia . Main reserve currency in the Mediterranean and Near East: Roman Solidus , later replaced by the Dinar , minted by the Caliphates. During the Middle Ages the region was known by Arab merchants. Europeans were aware that

3751-673: The Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade further prevented Israeli passage . After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 5 November, seeking to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal , which Nasser had earlier nationalised by transferring administrative control from

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3872-427: The Tripartite Declaration , and supply even more weapons to Israel. During the same visit, Peres informed the French that Israel had decided upon war with Egypt in 1956. Peres claimed that Nasser was a genocidal maniac intent upon not only destroying Israel, but also exterminating its people, and as such, Israel wanted a war before Egypt received even more Soviet weapons, and there was still a possibility of victory for

3993-527: The World War I ). The contact between distant civilizations was highly facilitated as well as the mapping of a large part of the planet, with people in this historical period having a better understanding of the global map of the Planet Earth . According to historical statistics and research from the OECD , until the early modern period , Western Europe, China , and India accounted for roughly ⅔ of

4114-533: The "biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century" to the United States, as it is "the only country with enough power to jeopardize the current global order ". No agreed definition of what a superpower is exists and may differ between sources. However, a fundamental characteristic that is consistent with all definitions of a superpower is a nation or state that has mastered the seven dimensions of state power, namely geography, population, economy, resources , military, diplomacy, and national identity . The term

4235-588: The 1936 Anglo-Egyptian treaty allowed Britain the right of intervention against foreign and domestic threats). In turn, many American officials, such as Ambassador Jefferson Caffery , saw the British military presence in Egypt as anachronistic, and viewed the Revolutionary Command Council (as Nasser called his government) in a favourable light. Caffery was consistently positive about Nasser in his reports to Washington, right up until his departure from Cairo in 1955. The regime of King Farouk

4356-599: The 1950s, the Middle East was dominated by four interlinked conflicts: Britain's desire to mend Anglo-Egyptian relations in the wake of the coup saw the country strive for rapprochement throughout 1953-54. Part of this process was the agreement, in 1953, to terminate British rule in Sudan by 1956, in return for Cairo's abandoning its claim to suzerainty over the Nile Valley. In October 1954, Britain and Egypt concluded

4477-407: The 1955 Bandung Conference and was impressed by him. Zhou recommended that Khrushchev treat Nasser as a potential ally. Zhou described Nasser to Khrushchev as a young nationalist who, though no Communist, could if used correctly do much damage to Western interests in the Middle East. Marshal Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia , who also came to know Nasser at the Bandung Conference told Khrushchev in

4598-416: The 1955 deal. Nasser had let it be known, in 1954–55, that he was considering buying weapons from the Soviet Union, and thus coming under Soviet influence, as a way of pressuring the Americans into selling him the arms he desired. Khrushchev, who very much wanted to win the Soviet Union influence in the Middle East, was more than ready to arm Egypt if the Americans proved unwilling. During secret talks with

4719-442: The Americans supported Egypt, though trying hard to limit the extent of the damage this might cause to Anglo-American relations. In the same report of May 1953 to President Dwight D. Eisenhower calling for "even-handedness", Dulles stated that the Egyptians were not interested in joining the proposed MEDO; that the Arabs were more interested in their disputes with the British, French, Israelis and each other than in standing against

4840-428: The Anglo-Egyptian Agreement on the phased evacuation of British Armed Forces troops from the Suez base, the terms of which agreed to withdrawal of all troops within 20 months, maintenance of the base to be continued, and for Britain to hold the right to return for seven years. The Suez Company was not due to revert to the Egyptian government until 1968 under the terms of the treaty. Britain's close relationship with

4961-420: The Arab–Israeli dispute. It was a source of constant puzzlement to American officials in the 1950s, that Arab states and Israelis had more interest in fighting each other, than uniting against the Soviet Union. After his visit to the Middle East in May 1953 to drum up support for MEDO, the Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles found to his astonishment that the Arab states were "more fearful of Zionism than of

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5082-439: The Baghdad Pact occurred almost simultaneously with a dramatic Israeli reprisal operation on the Gaza Strip on 28 February 1955 in retaliation for Palestinian fedayeen raids into Israel , during which the Israeli Unit 101 commanded by Ariel Sharon did damage to Egyptian Army forces. The close occurrence of the two events was mistakenly interpreted by Nasser as part of coordinated Western effort to push him into joining

5203-493: The Baghdad Pact. The signing of the Baghdad Pact and the Gaza raid marked the beginning of the end of Nasser's good relations with the Americans. In particular, Nasser saw Iraq's participation in the Baghdad Pact as a Western attempt to promote his archenemy Nuri al-Said as an alternative leader of the Arab world. Instead of siding with either superpower, Nasser took the role of the spoiler, and tried to play them off, to have them compete in attempts to buy his friendship. Under

5324-459: The Cold War. It must relearn the game of international politics as a major power, not a superpower, and make compromises". Experts argue that this older single-superpower assessment of global politics is too simplified, in part because of the difficulty in classifying the European Union at its current stage of development. Others argue that the notion of a superpower is outdated, considering complex global economic interdependencies and propose that

5445-399: The Communists". The policy of the United States was colored by uncertainty as to whom to befriend. American policy was torn between a desire to maintain good relations with NATO allies such as Britain and France who were major colonial powers, and to align Third World nationalists with the Free World camp. Though it would be false to describe the coup deposing King Farouk in July 1952 as

5566-424: The European Union, India, and Russia are among the political entities most cited as having the potential of achieving superpower status in the 21st century. In 2020, a new UBS survey found that 57% of global investors predicted that China would replace the U.S. as the world's biggest superpower by 2030. However, many historians, writers, and critics have expressed doubts whether China or India would ever emerge as

5687-420: The FLN. Mollet came to perceive Nasser as a major threat. During a visit to London in March 1956, Mollet told Eden his country was faced with an Islamic threat to the very soul of France supported by the Soviet Union. Mollet stated: "All this is in the works of Nasser, just as Hitler's policy was written down in Mein Kampf . Nasser has the ambition to recreate the conquests of Islam . But his present position

5808-442: The French amid the Cold War (which established the U.S. and the USSR as the world's superpowers). As a result of the conflict, the UN established an emergency force to police and patrol the Egypt–Israel border , while British prime minister Anthony Eden resigned from his position. For his diplomatic efforts in resolving the conflict through UN initiatives, Canadian external affairs minister Lester B. Pearson received

5929-477: The Israeli government. In 1962 Robert F. Kennedy , the United States Attorney General , forced the AZC to register as a foreign agent. In doing so, they were barred from making monetary contributions to US officials, but continued to send out newsletters and hold events with a nonprofit tax exemption. In 1966, AZC was dissolved after regulatory changes revoked tax exemption for foreign agents. Its former subsidiary AIPAC continues to operate. This article about

6050-416: The Jewish state. Throughout 1955 and 1956, Nasser pursued a number of policies that would frustrate British aims throughout the Middle East, and result in increasing hostility between Britain and Egypt. Nasser saw Iraq's inclusion in the Baghdad Pact as indicating that the United States and Britain had sided with his much hated archenemy Nuri al-Said 's efforts to be the leader of the Arab world, and much of

6171-505: The Middle East, 1,200,000 by tanker through the canal, and another 800,000 via pipeline from the Persian Gulf ( Trans-Arabian Pipeline ) and Kirkuk ( Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline ) to the Mediterranean, where tankers received it. The US imported another 300,000 barrels daily from the Middle East. Though pipelines linked the oil fields of the Kingdom of Iraq and the Persian Gulf states to the Mediterranean, these routes were prone to suffer from instability, which led British leaders to prefer to use

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6292-448: The Near East came from the Kremlin, and urged Nasser to set aside his differences with Britain to focus on countering the Soviet Union. In this spirit, Dulles suggested that Nasser negotiate a deal that would see Egypt assume sovereignty over the canal zone base, but then allow the British to have "technical control" in the same way Ford auto company provided parts and training to its Egyptian dealers. Nasser did not share Dulles's fear of

6413-499: The Near East was seen as an ominous development that threatened to put an end to British influence in the oil-rich region. Over the same period, the French Premier Guy Mollet was facing an increasingly serious rebellion in Algeria , where the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) rebels were being verbally supported by Egypt via transmissions of the Voice of the Arabs radio, financially supported with Suez Canal revenue and clandestinely owned Egyptian ships were shipping arms to

6534-508: The Near East, and also to ensuring that any arms sales to one side was matched by arms sales of equal quantity and quality to the other. Eisenhower viewed the Tripartite Declaration, which sharply restricted how many arms Egypt could buy in the West, as one of the key elements in keeping the peace between Israel and the Arabs, and believed that setting off an arms race would inevitably lead to a new war. The Egyptians made continuous attempts to purchase heavy arms from Czechoslovakia years before

6655-437: The Russian boots clumping down over the hot desert sands. The projected Middle East Defense Organization (MEDO) was to be centered on Egypt. A United States National Security Council directive of March 1953 called Egypt the "key" to the Near East and advised that Washington "should develop Egypt as a point of strength". A dilemma for American policy was that the two strongest powers in the Near East, Britain and France, were

6776-482: The Sick Man of Europe . In 1976, the United Kingdom had to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which it had previously ironically helped create, receiving funding of $ 3.9 billion, the largest-ever loan to be requested up until that point. In 1979, the country suffered major widespread strikes known as the Winter of Discontent . All these factors were seen by academics, economists and politicians as symbolising Britain's postwar decline. Lastly,

6897-441: The Soviet Union and insisted vehemently he wanted to see the end of British influence in the Middle East. The CIA offered Nasser a $ 3 million bribe if he would join the proposed Middle East Defense Organization; Nasser took the money, but refused to join. Nasser made it clear to the Americans he wanted an Egyptian-dominated Arab League to be the principal defence organisation in the Near East, which might be informally associated with

7018-412: The Soviet Union has never occupied our territory ... but the British have been here for seventy years. How can I go to my people and tell them I am disregarding a killer with a pistol sixty miles from me at the Suez Canal to worry about somebody who is holding a knife a thousand miles away? Dulles informed Nasser of his belief that the Soviet Union was seeking world conquest, that the principal danger to

7139-421: The Soviets in 1955, Nasser's demands for weapons were more than amply satisfied as the Soviet Union had not signed the Tripartite Declaration. The news in September 1955 of the Egyptian purchase of a huge quantity of Soviet arms via Czechoslovakia was greeted with shock and rage in the West, where this was seen as a major increase in Soviet influence in the Near East. In Britain, the increase of Soviet influence in

7260-451: The Soviets; and that the "Northern Tier" states of Turkey, Iran and Pakistan were more useful as allies than Egypt. Accordingly, the best American policy towards Egypt was to work towards Arab–Israeli peace and the settlement of the Anglo-Egyptian dispute over the British Suez Canal base, as the best way of securing Egypt's ultimate adhesion to an American sponsored alliance centered on the "Northern Tier" states. The "Northern Tier" alliance

7381-411: The Straits of Tiran, but the Suez Canal was closed from October 1956 to March 1957 . U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower had issued a strong warning to the British if they were to invade Egypt; he threatened serious damage to the British financial system by selling the American government's bonds of pound sterling . Before their defeat, Egyptian troops blocked all ship traffic by sinking 40 ships in

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7502-435: The Suez base for 20 more years. Britain refused to withdraw from Suez, relying upon its treaty rights, as well as the presence of the Suez garrison. The price of such action was an escalation in violent hostility towards Britain and its troops in Egypt, which the Egyptian authorities did little to curb. In January 1952, British forces attempted to disarm a troublesome auxiliary police force barracks in Ismailia , resulting in

7623-407: The Truman administration, saw the Near East as a huge gap into which Soviet influence could be projected, and accordingly required an American-supported security system. American diplomat Raymond Hare later recalled: It's hard to put ourselves back in this period. There was really a definite fear of hostilities, of an active Russian occupation of the Middle East physically, and you practically hear

7744-422: The United States and the Soviet Union to dominate world affairs. At the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States became the world's sole superpower , a position sometimes referred to as that of a "hyperpower". Since the late 2010s and into the 2020s, China has increasingly been described as an emerging superpower or even an established one, as China represents

7865-439: The United States had not suffered the industrial destruction nor massive civilian casualties that marked the wartime situation of the countries in Europe or Asia. The war had reinforced the position of the United States as the world's largest long-term creditor nation and its principal supplier of goods; moreover, it had built up a strong industrial and technological infrastructure that had greatly advanced its military strength into

7986-405: The United States or the Soviet Union. These alliances implied that these two nations were part of an emerging bipolar world, in contrast with a previously multipolar world. The idea that the Cold War period revolved around only two blocs, or even only two nations, has been challenged by some scholars in the post–Cold War era, who have noted that the bipolar world only exists if one ignores all of

8107-570: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom. The British Empire was the most extensive empire in world history and considered the foremost great power, holding sway over 25% of the world's population and controlling about 25% of the Earth's total land area, while the United States and the Soviet Union grew in power before and during World War II. The UK would face serious political, financial, and colonial issues after World War II that left it unable to match Soviet or American power. Ultimately, Britain's empire would gradually dissolve over

8228-401: The United States. After he returned to Washington, Dulles advised Eisenhower that the Arab states believed "the United States will back the new state of Israel in aggressive expansion. Our basic political problem ... is to improve the Moslem states' attitudes towards Western democracies because our prestige in that area had been in constant decline ever since the war". The immediate consequence

8349-447: The West. Khrushchev had realised that by treating non-communists as being the same thing as being anti-communist, Moscow had needlessly alienated many potential friends over the years in the Third World. Under the banner of anti-imperialism, Khrushchev made it clear that the Soviet Union would provide arms to any left-wing government in the Third World as a way of undercutting Western influence. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai met Nasser at

8470-600: The World , Dr. Ian Bremmer , president of the Eurasia Group , argues that a superpower is "a country that can exert enough military, political, and economic power to persuade nations in every region of the world to take important actions they would not otherwise take". Apart from its common denotation of the foremost post-WWII states, the term superpower has colloquially been applied by some authors retrospectively to describe various preeminent ancient great empires or medieval great powers , in works such as Channel 5 (UK) 's documentary Rome: The World's First Superpower or

8591-413: The amount of material and oil that passes through the canal to the UK, and the economic consequences of the canal being put out of commission, concluding: The possibility of the Canal being closed to troopships makes the question of the control and regime of the Canal as important to Britain today as it ever was. In the aftermath of the Second World War , Britain's military strength was spread throughout

8712-615: The arms sales. Nasser's first choice for buying weapons was the United States. However his frequent anti-Zionist speeches and sponsorship of the Palestinian fedayeen , who made frequent raids into Israel, rendered it difficult for the Eisenhower administration to get the approval of Congress necessary to sell weapons to Egypt. American public opinion was deeply hostile towards selling arms to Egypt that might be used against Israel. Moreover, Eisenhower feared doing so could trigger

8833-540: The breakdown of a disintegrating unipolar world order, while not a peer competitor to the United States, would still remain a player and a potential rogue state that would undermine global affairs. The West could contain Russia with methods like those employed during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, though this would be tested by Russia's overt and covert efforts to destabilize Western alliances and political systems. On

8954-526: The canal abruptly lost its traditional rationale. ... [British] control over the canal could no longer be preserved on grounds that it was critical to the defence either of India or of an empire that was being liquidated. And yet, at exactly the same moment, the canal was gaining a new role—as the highway not of empire, but of oil. ... By 1955, petroleum accounted for half of the canal's traffic, and, in turn, two thirds of Europe's oil passed through it". Western Europe then imported two million barrels per day from

9075-691: The canal as a strategic intersection was again apparent during the First World War, when Britain and France closed the canal to non- Allied shipping. The attempt by the German-led Ottoman Fourth Army to storm the canal in 1915 led the British to commit 100,000 troops to the defence of Egypt for the rest of the war. The canal continued to be strategically important after the Second World War for oil shipment. Petroleum historian Daniel Yergin wrote: "In 1948,

9196-476: The canal. It later became clear that Israel, the UK, and France had conspired to invade Egypt. These three achieved a number of their military objectives, although the canal was useless. The crisis strengthened Nasser's standing and led to international humiliation for the British ;– with historians arguing that it signified the end of its role as a world superpower  – as well as

9317-585: The communist guerrillas in Greece during the Greek Civil War , and when Richard Nixon withdrew US troops from Vietnam in the early 1970s. The more important candidates for disengagement were where Soviet and US forces faced each other directly such as in Germany and Austria . The Austrian State Treaty is an example of formal, multilateral, superpower disengagement which left Austria as neutral for

9438-424: The company for £4 million (equivalent to £476 million in 2023). This maintained the majority shareholdings of the mostly-French private investors. With the 1882 invasion and occupation of Egypt , the UK took de facto control of the country as well as the canal, its finances and operations. The 1888 Convention of Constantinople declared the canal a neutral zone under British protection. In ratifying it,

9559-491: The concept in the book The Superpowers: The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union — Their Responsibility for Peace which spoke of the global reach of a super-empowered nation. Fox used the word superpower to identify a new category of power able to occupy the highest status in a world in which—as the war then raging demonstrated—states could challenge and fight each other on a global scale. According to him, at that moment, there were three states that were superpowers, namely

9680-586: The continued presence of Britain at Suez for a further two years, led to domestic unrest including an assassination attempt against him in October 1954. The tenuous nature of Nasser's rule caused him to believe that neither his regime nor Egypt's independence would be safe until Egypt had established itself as head of the Arab world. This would manifest in the challenging of British Middle Eastern interests throughout 1955. The US, while attempting to erect an alliance in

9801-461: The course of the 20th century, sharply reducing its global power projection. According to Lyman Miller, "[t]he basic components of superpower stature may be measured along four axes of power: military, economic, political, and cultural (or what political scientist Joseph Nye has termed " soft power ")". In the opinion of Kim Richard Nossal of Queen's University in Canada, "generally, this term

9922-578: The deaths of 41 Egyptians. This led to anti-Western riots in Cairo resulting in damage to property and the deaths of foreigners, including 11 British citizens. This proved to be a catalyst for the removal of the Egyptian monarchy . On 23 July 1952 a military coup by the Egyptian nationalist ' Free Officers Movement '—led by Muhammad Neguib and future Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser —overthrew King Farouk and established an Egyptian republic. In

10043-587: The duration of the Cold War, with Austria staying out of the Warsaw Pact , NATO , and the European Economic Community . The 1952 Stalin Note is perhaps the most controversial proposal of superpower disengagement from Germany. These are proposed examples of ancient or historical superpowers, taking into account that the knowledge of what the "known world" was constitued was extremely limited in past eras (for example, Europeans became aware of

10164-514: The early history of both regions contact between these civilization was very limited, long distance trade definitely occurred but primarily through long chains of intermediaries rather than directly. Really regular contact between Egypt, Mesopotamia and Anatolia really dates from this period. Mitanni was an important intermediary in the trade between these civilizations. Known by the Minoans and Mycenaean Greeks : Contact with other civilizations

10285-539: The existence of the Americas and Australia only after the Age of Discovery , which began in the late 15th century, and prior to this era, they had a very limited knowledge about East Asia as well). Many of the nations of this historical period were never superpowers, however they were regional powers with influence in their respective regions. Note: Does not take into account city-states and stateless nomadic peoples. In

10406-627: The foreign-owned Suez Canal Company to Egypt's new government-owned Suez Canal Authority . Shortly after the invasion began, the three countries came under heavy political pressure from both the United States and the Soviet Union , as well as from the United Nations , eventually prompting their withdrawal from Egypt. Israel's four-month-long occupation of the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula enabled it to attain freedom of navigation through

10527-501: The form of a Middle East Defense Organization to keep the Soviet Union out of the Near East, tried to woo Nasser into this alliance. The central problem for American policy was that this region was perceived as strategically important due to its oil, but the United States, weighed down by defence commitments in Europe and the Far East, lacked sufficient troops to resist a Soviet invasion of the Middle East. In 1952, General Omar Bradley of

10648-471: The growth of radical political groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt , and an increasingly hostile attitude towards Britain and its presence. Added to this anti-British fervour was the role Britain had played in the creation of Israel . In October 1951, the Egyptian government unilaterally abrogated the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 , the terms of which granted Britain a lease on

10769-635: The motivation for Nasser's turn to an active anti-Western policy starting in 1955 was due to his displeasure with the Baghdad Pact. For Nasser, attendance at such events as the Bandung conference in April 1955 served as both the means of striking a posture as a global leader, and of playing hard to get in his talks with the Americans, especially his demand that the United States sell him vast quantities of arms. Superpower Superpower describes

10890-585: The movement for decolonization reached its peak, with remaining imperial holdings achieving independence, accelerating the transition from the British Empire to the Commonwealth of Nations . As the Empire continued to crumble, the home islands of the United Kingdom later experienced deindustrialization throughout the 1970s, coupled with high inflation and industrial unrest that unraveled the postwar consensus . This led to some economists to refer to Britain as

11011-419: The nations whose influence many local nationalists most resented. From 1953 onwards, American diplomacy had attempted unsuccessfully to persuade the powers involved in the Near East, local and imperial, to set aside their differences and unite against the Soviets. The Americans took the view that, just as fear of the Soviet Union had helped to end the historic Franco-German enmity , so could anti-Communism end

11132-416: The new leadership of Nikita Khrushchev , the Soviet Union was making a major effort to win influence in the so-called Third World . As part of the diplomatic offensive, Khrushchev had abandoned Moscow's traditional line of treating all non-communists as enemies and adopted a tactic of befriending so-called "non-aligned" nations, which often were led by leaders who were non-Communists, but were hostile towards

11253-486: The opinion of Professor Paul Dukes , "a superpower must be able to conduct a global strategy, including the possibility of destroying the world; to command vast economic potential and influence; and to present a universal ideology". Although "many modifications may be made to this basic definition". According to Professor June Teufel Dreyer, "[a] superpower must be able to project its power, soft and hard, globally". In his book Superpower: Three Choices for America's Role in

11374-519: The other hand, China is a peer competitor to the United States that cannot be contained, and will be a far more challenging entity for the West to confront. The authors state that China's military dominance in the Asia-Pacific is already eroding American influence at a rapid pace, and the costs for the US to defend its interests there will continue to rise. Moreover, China's economic influence has already broken out of its regional confines long ago and

11495-726: The outbreak of the Algerian War in late 1954, France began to ship more and more arms to Israel. In November 1954, the Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Defense Shimon Peres visited Paris, where he was received by the French Defense Minister Marie-Pierre Kœnig , who told him that France would sell Israel any weapons it wanted to buy. By early 1955, France was shipping large amounts of weapons to Israel. In April 1956, following another visit to Paris by Peres, France agreed to totally disregard

11616-448: The past been considered by some to be a unipolar world, with the United States as the world's sole remaining superpower. In 1999, political scientist and author Samuel P. Huntington wrote: "The United States, of course, is the sole state with preeminence in every domain of power – economic, military, diplomatic, ideological, technological, and cultural – with the reach and capabilities to promote its interests in virtually every part of

11737-473: The possibility of the United States losing its superpower status completely in the future, citing speculation of its decline in power relative to the rest of the world, economic hardships, a declining dollar, Cold War allies becoming less dependent on the United States, and the emergence of future powers around the world. According to a RAND Corporation paper by American diplomat James Dobbins , Professor Howard J. Shatz, and policy analyst Ali Wyne, Russia in

11858-623: The pre-eminent cities in the world, being ranked as a global city by the Mori Foundation. In 2022, the United Kingdom was ranked the foremost European country in terms of soft power by Brand Finance. In After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order (2001), French sociologist Emmanuel Todd predicts the eventual decline and fall of the United States as a superpower. "After years of being perceived as

11979-556: The reference in The New Cambridge Medieval History to "the other superpower, Sasanian Persia ". The 1956 Suez Crisis suggested that Britain , financially weakened by two world wars, could not then pursue its foreign policy objectives on an equal footing with the new superpowers without sacrificing convertibility of its reserve currency as a central goal of policy. As the majority of World War II had been fought far from its national boundaries,

12100-462: The region existed (to the point that Mansa Musa was mentioned in the Catalan Atlas ), but little information about the place reached Europe. Isolated civilization in relation to the Afro-Eurasia . Isolated civilizations in relation to the Afro-Eurasia . The  Age of Discovery  brought a broad change in globalization, being the first period in which previously isolated parts of

12221-533: The region, including the vast military complex at Suez with a garrison of 80,000, making it one of the largest military installations in the world. The Suez base was an important part of Britain's strategic position in the Middle East; however, it became a source of growing tension in Anglo-Egyptian relations . Egypt's domestic politics were experiencing a radical change, prompted by economic instability, inflation, and unemployment. Unrest began to manifest in

12342-523: The sea route through the canal. The rise of super-tankers for shipping Middle East oil to Europe, which were too big to use the canal, meant British policymakers greatly overestimated the importance of the canal. By 2000, only 8% of the imported oil in Britain arrived via the Suez Canal with the rest coming via the Cape route. In August 1956 the Royal Institute of International Affairs published

12463-529: The shortest ocean link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean . The canal eased commerce for trading nations and particularly helped European colonial powers to gain and govern their colonies. In 1875, as a result of debt and financial crisis, Egypt was forced to sell its shares in the operating company to the British government. They were willing buyers and obtained a 44% share in

12584-449: The sole remaining superpower of the Cold War era. This term, popularized by French foreign minister Hubert Védrine in the late 1990s, is controversial and the validity of classifying the United States in this way is disputed. One notable opponent to this theory is Samuel P. Huntington , who rejects this theory in favor of a multipolar balance of power . Other international relations theorists such as Henry Kissinger theorize that because

12705-416: The threat of the Soviet Union no longer exists to formerly American-dominated regions such as Western Europe and Japan, American influence is only declining since the end of the Cold War because such regions no longer need protection or have necessarily similar foreign policies as the United States. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 which ended the Cold War , the post–Cold War world has in

12826-506: The two Hashemite kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan were of particular concern to Nasser. In particular, Iraq's increasingly amicable relations with Britain were a threat to Nasser's desire to see Egypt as head of the Arab world. The creation of the Baghdad Pact in 1955 seemed to confirm Nasser's fears Britain was attempting to draw the Eastern Arab World into a bloc centred upon Iraq, and sympathetic to Britain. Nasser's response

12947-411: The various movements and conflicts that occurred without influence from either of the two superpowers. Additionally, much of the conflict between the superpowers was fought in proxy wars , which more often than not involved issues more complex than the standard Cold War oppositions. After the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s, the term hyperpower began to be applied to the United States as

13068-481: The world became connected to form the  world system , and the first colonial empires of the early modern age emerged, such as the Portuguese , Spanish , Dutch and French empires. The British Empire , after its Glorious Revolution in 1688 and its pioneering role in the industrialization process in the 18th century would lead to its global hegemony in the 19th century and early 20th century (before

13189-531: The world is multipolar . A 2012 report by the National Intelligence Council predicted that the United States superpower status will have eroded to merely being first among equals by 2030, but that it would remain highest among the world's most powerful countries because of its influence in many different fields and global connections that the great regional powers of the time would not match. Additionally, some experts have suggested

13310-405: The world". However, Huntington rejected the claim that the world was unipolar, arguing: "There is now only one superpower. But that does not mean that the world is unipolar", describing it instead as "a strange hybrid, a uni-multipolar system with one superpower and several major powers". He further wrote that "Washington is blind to the fact that it no longer enjoys the dominance it had at the end of

13431-477: The world. Superpower disengagement is a foreign policy option whereby the most powerful nations, the superpowers, reduce their interventions in an area. Such disengagement could be multilateral among superpowers or lesser powers, or bilateral between two superpowers, or unilateral. It could mean an end to either direct or indirect interventions. For instance, disengagement could mean that the superpowers remove their support of proxies in proxy wars to de-escalate

13552-409: Was a determination to see the entire Middle East as Egypt's rightful sphere of influence, and a tendency on the part of Nasser to fortify his pan-Arabist and nationalist credibility by seeking to oppose all Western security initiatives in the Near East. Despite the establishment of such an agreement with the British, Nasser's position remained tenuous. The loss of Egypt's claim to Sudan, coupled with

13673-558: Was a new policy of "even-handedness" where the United States very publicly sided with the Arab states in disputes with Israel in 1953–54. Moreover, Dulles did not share any sentimental regard for the Anglo-American " special relationship ", which led the Americans to lean towards the Egyptian side in the Anglo-Egyptian disputes. During the difficult negotiations over the British evacuation of the Suez Canal base in 1954–55,

13794-629: Was a series of challenges to British influence in the region that would culminate in the Suez Crisis. In regard to the Arab leadership, particularly venomous was the feud between Nasser and the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Said , for Arab leadership, with the Cairo-based Voice of the Arabs radio station regularly calling for the overthrow of the government in Baghdad. The most important factors that drove Egyptian foreign policy

13915-410: Was achieved in early 1955 with the creation of the Baghdad Pact comprising Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Iraq and the UK. The presence of the last two states was due to the British desire to continue to maintain influence in the Middle East, and Nuri Said's wish to associate his country with the West, as the best way of counterbalancing the aggressive Egyptian claims to regional predominance. The conclusion of

14036-528: Was coined by Dutch-American geostrategist Nicholas Spykman in a series of lectures in 1943 about the potential shape of a new post-war world order. This formed the foundation for the book The Geography of the Peace , which referred primarily to the unmatched maritime global supremacy of the British Empire and the United States as essential for peace and prosperity in the world. A year later, William T. R. Fox , an American foreign policy professor, elaborated on

14157-513: Was desperate to find a new source of weapons to replace Britain. Nasser had first broached the subject of buying weapons from the Soviet Union in 1954. Most of all, Nasser wanted the United States to supply arms on a generous scale to Egypt. Nasser refused to promise that any U.S. arms he might buy would not be used against Israel, and rejected out of hand the American demand for a Military Assistance Advisory Group to be sent to Egypt as part of

14278-410: Was first used to describe nations with greater than great power status as early as 1944, but only gained its specific meaning with regard to the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II . This was because the United States and the Soviet Union had proved themselves to be capable of casting great influence in global politics and military dominance. The term in its current political meaning

14399-455: Was used to signify a political community that occupied a continental-sized landmass; had a sizable population (relative at least to other major powers); a superordinate economic capacity, including ample indigenous supplies of food and natural resources; enjoyed a high degree of non-dependence on international intercourse; and, most importantly, had a well-developed nuclear capacity (eventually, normally defined as second strike capability)". In

14520-609: Was very limited, long distance trade with Mesopotamia definitely occurred but primarily through long chains of intermediaries rather than directly. The Drachma , minted by many states, most notably in the Ptolemaic Egypt was the reserve currency in the Mediterranean and Near East Main reserve currency in the Mediterranean and Near East: Roman Denarius , later replaced by the Roman Solidus . Not fully known outside East Asia. The West knew of these powers because of

14641-632: Was viewed in Washington as weak, corrupt, unstable, and anti-American, so the Free Officers' July coup was welcomed. Nasser's contacts with the CIA were not necessary to prevent British intervention against the coup as Anglo-Egyptian relations had deteriorated so badly in 1951–52 that the British viewed any Egyptian government not headed by King Farouk as an improvement. In May 1953, during a meeting with Secretary Dulles, who asked Egypt to join an anti-Soviet alliance, Nasser responded by saying that

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