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114-397: Superpower describes 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

228-466: A different meaning with the development of the principle of self-determination and the prohibition against the threat or use of force as jus cogens norms of modern international law . The United Nations Charter , the Draft Declaration on Rights and Duties of States , and the charters of regional international organizations express the view that all states are juridically equal and enjoy

342-556: A legal basis in domestic law for the purposes of the Convention". On 9 October 2014, the US's Federal Court stated that "the TRNC purportedly operates as a democratic republic with a president, prime minister, legislature and judiciary". On 2 September 2015, ECtHR decided that "...the court system set up in the "TRNC" was to be considered to have been "established by law" with reference to

456-491: A more powerful neighbour; Belarus, in its relationship with Russia, has been proposed as a contemporary example of a semi-sovereign state. In a somewhat different sense, the term semi-sovereign was famously applied to West Germany by political scientist Peter Katzenstein in his 1987 book Policy and Politics in West Germany: The Growth of a Semi-sovereign State, due to having a political system in which

570-410: A new entity, but other states do not. Hersch Lauterpacht, one of the theory's main proponents, suggested that a state must grant recognition as a possible solution. However, a state may use any criteria when judging if they should give recognition and they have no obligation to use such criteria. Many states may only recognise another state if it is to their advantage. In 1912, L. F. L. Oppenheim said

684-516: 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 a superpower due to its large GDP and high economic growth at

798-527: 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

912-416: 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

1026-416: A state to recognise other states. Recognition is often withheld when a new state is seen as illegitimate or has come about in breach of international law. Almost universal non-recognition by the international community of Rhodesia and Northern Cyprus are good examples of this, the former only having been recognized by South Africa, and the latter only recognized by Turkey. In the case of Rhodesia, recognition

1140-443: A state was defined by having a territory, a population, government, and capacity to enter into relations with other states. The Montevideo Convention criteria do not automatically create a state because additional requirements must be met. While they play an important role, they do not determine the status of a country in all cases, such as Kosovo , Rhodesia , and Somaliland . In practice international relations take into account

1254-595: A successful strategy") became popular with the use of this phrase by members of the Clinton Administration and the Obama Administration . Nye is the former Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University , where he currently holds the position of University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus. In October 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry appointed Nye to

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1368-650: 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

1482-888: A trustee of Radcliffe College and Wells College . He was on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations , the Guiding Coalition of the Project on National Security Reform , the Advisory Board of Carolina for Kibera , and the Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies . He has been awarded the Woodrow Wilson Prize by Princeton University and the Charles E. Merriman Prize by

1596-471: Is binding on all the members of the community of nations on the criteria for statehood. Some argue that the criteria are mainly political, not legal. L.C. Green cited the recognition of the unborn Polish and Czechoslovak states in World War I and explained that "since recognition of statehood is a matter of discretion, it is open to any existing State to accept as a state any entity it wishes, regardless of

1710-458: Is commonly considered to be such a state. Outlining the concept of a de facto state for EurasiaNet in early 2024, Laurence Broers wrote: De facto states can be understood as a product of the very system that excludes the possibility of their existence: the post-Second World War and post-colonial system of sovereign and equal states covering every centimeter of the globe. The hegemony of this system, at least until recent years,

1824-475: Is contested or where it is not exercised over their whole area. Currently, the international community includes more than 200 sovereign states, most of which are represented in the United Nations . These states exist in a system of international relations, where each state takes into account the policies of other states by making its own calculations. From this point of view, States are integrated into

1938-552: Is currently (as of July 2018) University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus. Nye and his colleague Keohane have been characterized as key figures in the development of a discipline of international political economy, largely as a result of their authorship of Power and Interdependence . Nye's influences include Karl Deutsch and Ernst Hass . From 1977 to 1979, Nye was Deputy to the Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science, and Technology and chaired

2052-506: Is more controversial than that of sovereignty. It is an indisputable fact that this conception, from the moment when it was introduced into political science until the present day, has never had a meaning, which was universally agreed upon." In the opinion of H. V. Evatt of the High Court of Australia , "sovereignty is neither a question of fact, nor a question of law, but a question that does not arise at all". Sovereignty has taken on

2166-470: Is most commonly conceptualised as something categorical, which is either present or absent, and the coherence of any intermediate position in that binary has been questioned, especially in the context of international law. In spite of this, some authors admit the concept of a semi-sovereign state , a state which is officially acknowledged as sovereign but whose theoretical sovereignty is significantly impaired in practice, such as by being de facto subjected to

2280-409: 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,

2394-433: Is recognised as sovereign by at least one other state. This theory of recognition was developed in the 19th century. Under it, a state was sovereign if another sovereign state recognised it as such. Because of this, new states could not immediately become part of the international community or be bound by international law, and recognised nations did not have to respect international law in their dealings with them. In 1815, at

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2508-572: 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,

2622-467: Is the concept of nation-state sovereignty based on territoriality and the absence of a role for external agents in domestic structures. It is an international system of states, multinational corporations , and organizations that began with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Sovereignty is a term that is frequently misused. Up until the 19th century, the radicalised concept of a "standard of civilization"

2736-607: Is what created the possibility of a de facto state as an anomaly existing outside of it - or in Alexander Iskandaryan 's memorable phrase, as "temporary technical errors within the system of international law." The Soviet and Yugoslav collapses resulted in the emergence of numerous such entities, several of which, including Abkhazia, Transdniester, South Ossetia and the NKR , survived in the margins of international relations for decades despite non-recognition. Sovereignty

2850-1026: The American Political Science Association . In 2005, he was awarded the Honorary Patronage of the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College Dublin and has been awarded honorary degrees by ten colleges and universities. In 2010, Nye won the Foreign Policy Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Studies Association . In 2009, he was made a Theodore Roosevelt Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. In October 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry appointed Nye to

2964-585: The Cold War , the British Empire dissolved, leaving 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

3078-535: 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

3192-568: The Congress of Vienna , the Final Act recognised only 39 sovereign states in the European diplomatic system, and as a result, it was firmly established that in the future new states would have to be recognised by other states, and that meant in practice recognition by one or more of the great powers . One of the major criticisms of this law is the confusion caused when some states recognise

3306-670: The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States (TURKPA) , etc.). Most sovereign states are both de jure and de facto (i.e., they exist both according to law and in practice). However, states which are only de jure are sometimes recognised as being the legitimate government of a territory over which they have no actual control. For example, during

3420-713: The Foreign Affairs Policy Board . He is also a member of the Defense Policy Board . He has been a Harvard faculty member since 1964. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences , a foreign fellow of the British Academy , and a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy . The 2011 Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) survey of over 1,700 international relations scholars ranked Nye as

3534-579: The Foreign Affairs Policy Board . The group meets periodically to discuss strategic questions and to provide the Secretary and other senior Department officials with independent informed perspectives and ideas. In November 2014, Nye was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun , Gold and Silver Star in recognition of his "contribution to the development of studies on Japan-U.S. security and to the promotion of

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3648-635: 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

3762-897: The National Security Council Group on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In recognition of his service, he was awarded the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award in 1979. In 1993 and 1994, he was Chairman of the National Intelligence Council , which coordinates intelligence estimates for the President, and was awarded the Intelligence Community's Distinguished Service Medal. In the Clinton Administration from 1994 to 1995, Nye served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs , and

3876-682: 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 , the Depression of 1920–21 , the Partition of Ireland ,

3990-629: The Second World War , governments-in-exile of several states continued to enjoy diplomatic relations with the Allies , notwithstanding that their countries were under occupation by Axis powers . Other entities may have de facto control over a territory but lack international recognition; these may be considered by the international community to be only de facto states. They are considered de jure states only according to their own law and by states that recognise them. For example, Somaliland

4104-749: 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

4218-657: 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 a similar prediction in 1976. Due to Russia's capabilities of conventional warfare during

4332-524: 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

4446-441: The declarative theory of statehood defines a state as a person in international law if it meets the following criteria: 1) a defined territory; 2) a permanent population; 3) a government and 4) a capacity to enter into relations with other states. According to declarative theory, an entity's statehood is independent of its recognition by other states, as long as the sovereignty was not gained by military force. The declarative model

4560-530: The great powers . While 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

4674-457: The international relations theory of neoliberalism , which they developed in their 1977 book Power and Interdependence . Together with Keohane, he developed the concepts of asymmetrical and complex interdependence . They also explored transnational relations and world politics in an edited volume in the 1970s. More recently, he pioneered the theory of soft power . His notion of " smart power " ("the ability to combine hard and soft power into

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4788-530: 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

4902-517: The "constitutional and legal basis" on which it operated, and it has not accepted the allegation that the "TRNC" courts as a whole lacked independence and/or impartiality". On 3 February 2017, The United Kingdom's High Court stated "There was no duty in the United Kingdom law upon the Government to refrain from recognizing Northern Cyprus. The United Nations itself works with Northern Cyprus law enforcement agencies and facilitates co-operation between

5016-667: The American Preserve Company." During his time at Princeton, Nye was vice president of the Colonial Club , a columnist for The Daily Princetonian , and a member of the American Whig–Cliosophic Society 's Debate Panel . After studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University 's Exeter College , he obtained his PhD in political science from Harvard University in 1964. Nye's doctoral dissertation

5130-522: 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

5244-420: 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

5358-668: 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,

5472-491: 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

5586-404: 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

5700-621: 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

5814-713: 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

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5928-517: The attribute of every nation". Absolute sovereign immunity is no longer as widely accepted as it has been in the past, and some countries, including the United States, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa, have introduced restrictive immunity by statute, which explicitly limits jurisdictional immunity to public acts, but not private or commercial ones, though there is no precise definition by which public acts can easily be distinguished from private ones. State recognition signifies

6042-484: 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

6156-584: 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

6270-551: The community that has the intention to inhabit the territory permanently and is capable to support the superstructure of the State, though there is no requirement of a minimum population. The government must be capable of exercising effective control over a territory and population (the requirement known in legal theory as "effective control test") and guarantee the protection of basic human rights by legal methods and policies. The "capacity to enter into relations with other states" reflects

6384-490: 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

6498-476: The concept of " government-in-exile " is predicated upon that distinction. States are non-physical juridical entities, not organisations of any kind. However, ordinarily, only the government of a state can obligate or bind the state, for example by treaty. Generally speaking, states are durable entities, though they can become extinguished, either through voluntary means or outside forces, such as military conquest. Violent state abolition has virtually ceased since

6612-460: 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

6726-453: The decision of a sovereign state to treat another entity as also being a sovereign state. Recognition can be either expressed or implied and is usually retroactive in its effects. It does not necessarily signify a desire to establish or maintain diplomatic relations. There are debates over whether states can exist as a fact independent of recognition or whether recognition is one of the facts necessary to bring states into being. No definition

6840-454: 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

6954-460: 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

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7068-404: The effect of recognition and non-recognition. It is the act of recognition that affirms whether a country meets the requirements for statehood and is now subject to international law in the same way that other sovereign states are. State practice relating to the recognition of states typically falls somewhere between the declaratory and constitutive approaches. International law does not require

7182-553: The end of World War II. Because states are non-physical juridical entities, it has been argued that their extinction cannot be due to physical force alone. Instead, the physical actions of the military must be associated with the correct social or judiciary actions for a state to be abolished. The ontological status of the state has been a subject of debate, especially, whether or not the state, being an object that no one can see, taste, touch, or otherwise detect, actually exists. It has been argued that one potential reason as to why

7296-602: The end of the 19th century, almost the entire globe has been divided into sections (countries) with more or less defined borders assigned to different states. Previously, quite large plots of land were either unclaimed or deserted, or inhabited by nomadic peoples that were not organized into states. However, even in modern states, there are large remote areas, such as the Amazon's tropical forests , that are either uninhabited or inhabited exclusively or mainly by indigenous people (and some of them are still not in constant contact). Additionally, there are states where de facto control

7410-416: The entity's degree of independence. Article 3 of the Montevideo Convention declares that political statehood is independent of recognition by other states, and the state is not prohibited from defending itself. A similar opinion about "the conditions on which an entity constitutes a state" is expressed by the European Economic Community Opinions of the Badinter Arbitration Committee , which found that

7524-447: The existence of states has been controversial is because states do not have a place in the traditional Platonist duality of the concrete and the abstract. Characteristically, concrete objects are those that have a position in time and space, which states do not have (though their territories have a spatial position, states are distinct from their territories), and abstract objects have a position in neither time nor space, which does not fit

7638-438: The existence of territory or of an established government." International lawyer Hersch Lauterpacht states that recognition is not merely a formality but an active interpretation in support of any facts. Once made however it cannot be arbitrarily revoked on account of another state's own discretion or internal politics. The constitutive theory of statehood defines a state as a person of international law if, and only if, it

7752-434: 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

7866-439: The field's most influential scholars. Nye attended Morristown Prep (now the Morristown–Beard School ) in Morristown, New Jersey and graduated in 1954. He then attended Princeton University , from where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history in 1958. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and won the Myron T. Herrick Thesis Prize . His senior thesis was titled "Death of a Family Firm: An Entrepreneurial History of

7980-464: The following, regarding constitutive theory: International Law does not say that a State is not in existence as long as it is not recognised, but it takes no notice of it before its recognition. Through recognition only and exclusively a State becomes an International Person and a subject of International Law. Recognition or non-recognition by other states can override declarative theory criteria in cases such as Kosovo and Somaliland . By contrast,

8094-437: The frames of a certain territory, that is its supremacy in the domestic policy and independence in the foreign one. Named after the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, the Westphalian System of state sovereignty, according to Bryan Turner, "made a more or less clear separation between religion and state, and recognized the right of princes "to confessionalize" the state, that is, to determine the religious affiliation of their kingdoms on

8208-406: The increase in the number of states can partly be credited to a more peaceful world, greater free trade and international economic integration, democratisation, and the presence of international organisations that co-ordinate economic and political policies. Joseph Nye Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. (born January 19, 1937) is an American political scientist . He and Robert Keohane co-founded

8322-487: The international system has surged. Some research suggests that the existence of international and regional organisations, the greater availability of economic aid, and greater acceptance of the norm of self-determination have increased the desire of political units to secede and can be credited for the increase in the number of states in the international system. Harvard economist Alberto Alesina and Tufts economist Enrico Spolaore argue in their book, Size of Nations, that

8436-478: The international system of special internal and external security and legitimization of the dilemma. Recently, the concept of the international community has been formed to refer to a group of States that have established rules, procedures and institutions for the implementation of relations. Thus, the foundation for international law , diplomacy between officially recognized sovereign states, their organizations and formal regimes has been laid. Westphalian sovereignty

8550-566: The jurisprudence has developed along the lines of affording immunity from prosecution to foreign states in domestic courts. In The Schooner Exchange v. M'Faddon , Chief Justice John Marshall of the United States Supreme Court wrote that the "perfect equality and absolute independence of sovereigns" has created a class of cases where "every sovereign is understood to waive the exercise of a part of that complete exclusive territorial jurisdiction, which has been stated to be

8664-563: The late 1980s, and it first came into widespread usage following a piece he wrote in Foreign Policy in 1990. Nye has consistently written for Project Syndicate since 2002. Nye and his wife, Molly Harding Nye, have three adult sons. He is a member of a Unitarian Universalist Association church. Nye is a neo-liberal . In Nye's view, analysis of collective security systems requires consideration of economic matters. Matters of collective economic security include common goods,

8778-585: 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

8892-595: The mutual understanding between Japan and the United States." Nye serves as a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Internet Governance , and served on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace from 2017 until its conclusion in 2019. He currently serves on the global Advisory Council for CFK Africa , a leading NGO working in Kenyan informal settlements. Nye coined the term soft power in

9006-421: The ontological state of the state is. Realists believe that the world is one of only states and interstate relations and the identity of the state is defined before any international relations with other states. On the other hand, pluralists believe that the state is not the only actor in international relations and interactions between states and the state is competing against many other actors. Another theory of

9120-464: The ontology of the state is that the state is a spiritual, or "mystical entity" with its own being, distinct from the members of the state. The German Idealist philosopher Georg Hegel (1770–1831) was perhaps the greatest proponent of this theory. The Hegelian definition of the state is "the Divine Idea as it exists on Earth". Since the end of World War II, the number of sovereign states in

9234-484: 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

9348-570: 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

9462-445: 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

9576-470: 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

9690-469: The pragmatic principle of cuius regio eius religio [ whose realm, his religion ]." Before 1900, sovereign states enjoyed absolute immunity from the judicial process, derived from the concepts of sovereignty and the Westphalian equality of states . First articulated by Jean Bodin , the powers of the state are considered to be suprema potestas within territorial boundaries. Based on this,

9804-620: 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

9918-489: The recognition of a country is a political issue. On 2 July 2013, The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided that "notwithstanding the lack of international recognition of the regime in the northern area, a de facto recognition of its acts may be rendered necessary for practical purposes. Thus the adoption by the authorities of the "TRNC" of civil, administrative or criminal law measures, and their application or enforcement within that territory, may be regarded as having

10032-554: 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,

10146-462: 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

10260-550: 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

10374-402: The role of documents in understanding all of social reality. Quasi-abstract objects, such as states, can be brought into being through document acts, and can also be used to manipulate them, such as by binding them by treaty or surrendering them as the result of a war. Scholars in international relations can be broken up into two different practices, realists and pluralists, of what they believe

10488-430: The same rights and duties based upon the mere fact of their existence as persons under international law. The right of nations to determine their own political status and exercise permanent sovereignty within the limits of their territorial jurisdictions is widely recognized. In political science, sovereignty is usually defined as the most essential attribute of the state in the form of its complete self-sufficiency in

10602-454: The sixth most influential scholar in the field of international relations in the past 20 years. He was also ranked as one of the most influential figures in American foreign policy . In 2011, Foreign Policy magazine included him on its list of top global thinkers. In September 2014, Foreign Policy reported that international relations scholars and policymakers ranked Nye as one of

10716-448: 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

10830-514: The sovereignty of the state was subject to limitations both internal (West Germany's federal system and the role of civil society) and external (membership in the European Community and reliance on its alliance with the United States and NATO for its national security). Although the terms "state" and "government" are often used interchangeably, international law distinguishes between a non-physical state and its government; and in fact,

10944-407: The supposed characteristics of states either, since states do have a temporal position (they can be created at certain times and then become extinct at a future time). Therefore, it has been argued that states belong to a third category, the quasi-abstract, that has recently begun to garner philosophical attention, especially in the area of Documentality , an ontological theory that seeks to understand

11058-415: 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

11172-587: 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, a region once dominated by Moscow for centuries. Dramatic changes occurred in

11286-710: The two parts of the island". and revealed that the co-operation between the United Kingdom police and law agencies in Northern Cyprus is legal. Turkish Cypriots gained "observer status" in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) , and their representatives are elected in the Assembly of Northern Cyprus. As a country, Northern Cyprus became an observer member in various international organizations (the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC),

11400-409: 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

11514-478: 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

11628-443: 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

11742-405: 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

11856-479: The world's GDP. Sovereign state A sovereign state is usually required to have a permanent population, defined territory, a government not under another, and the capacity to interact with other sovereign states . In actual practice, recognition or non-recognition by other states plays an important role in determining the status of a country. Unrecognized states often have difficulty engaging in diplomatic relations with other sovereign states. Since

11970-475: 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

12084-772: Was awarded the Department's Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. Nye was considered by many to be the preferred choice for National Security Advisor in the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry . He is the chairman of the North American branch of the Trilateral Commission and the co-chair of the Aspen Strategy Group . He is also a member of the Atlantic Council 's Board of Directors. Nye has also served as

12198-527: 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

12312-441: Was expressed in the 1933 Montevideo Convention . A "territory" in the international law context consists of land territory, internal waters, territorial sea, and air space above the territory. There is no requirement on strictly delimited borders or minimum size of the land, but artificial installations and uninhabitable territories cannot be considered as territories sufficient for statehood. The term "permanent population" defines

12426-410: 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

12540-657: Was on regional integration in East Africa. Nye joined the Harvard faculty in 1964 and served as Director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1985 to 1990 and as Associate Dean for International Affairs at Harvard University from 1989 to 1992. Nye also served as Director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University from 1989 to 1993 and Dean of John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1995 to 2004. Nye

12654-403: Was routinely deployed to determine that certain people in the world were "uncivilized", and lacking organised societies. That position was reflected and constituted in the notion that their "sovereignty" was either completely lacking or at least of an inferior character when compared to that of the "civilized" people". Lassa Oppenheim said, "There exists perhaps no conception the meaning of which

12768-454: 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

12882-609: 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

12996-517: Was widely withheld when the white minority seized power and attempted to form a state along the lines of Apartheid South Africa , a move that the United Nations Security Council described as the creation of an "illegal racist minority régime". In the case of Northern Cyprus, recognition was withheld from a state created in Northern Cyprus. International law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence, and

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