Superpower

Uniquely powerful nation, with superior military, economic, and political strength. At the close of World War II, two nations emerged from the wreckage as superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union. With most of their infrastructure still intact, and in possession of significant arsenals, these two countries were poised for rivalry. Relations soured as both countries laid claim to spheres of influence, and superpower rivalry became superpower hostility, with significant impact on the rest of the world.

Superpowers enjoy a natural claim to world leadership because they have substantial hard and soft power. They can enjoy maximum benefits by employing both. Hard power includes coercive power—both military and economic. Military might is important, but international law, customs regarding legitimate use, and the high cost of use (in terms of the loss from trade) render it best employed as a deterrent for superpowers. Hard power is also economic power; superpowers can create incentives or economic punishments that force other states to follow its lead. Soft power—state charisma, or leadership by example—can make leadership from superpowers more palatable and legitimate to other countries and render the use of hard power unnecessary.

[Page 696]With their overwhelming strength, superpowers enjoy certain privileges and hegemonic power relationships. Due to their superior strength, superpowers essentially dictate the world security climate. In a bipolar system, any agreements that rival superpowers reach (on arms control, for example) are necessarily binding on every other country. The lack of an agreement may have even greater effects: Alliance with one power or the other can make even small or weak countries into legitimate military targets.

Moreover, superpowers—because of their overwhelming military strength—have the capacity for mutual annihilation, and so they generally prefer not to go to war with one another. As a result, superpowers sometimes diffuse conflict by playing out their hostilities by proxy in small nations (as was the case in Korea and Vietnam).

There are, however, certain responsibilities that accompany such power. Superpowers, even more than great powers, have some obligation to maintain international peace and security. In a bipolar world system, some tension and conflict is expected. Nevertheless, because of their overwhelming power and influence, superpowers are obliged—morally and in their own interests—to prevent conflicts in their spheres from escalating. Even more important, rival superpowers are obligated to regulate their own behavior to protect life itself—the former Soviet Union had, and the United States still has, the capacity to destroy the world through nuclear holocaust. A sole superpower also has a responsibility to protect peace and security through self-regulation, and not to abuse its power.

Like great powers, superpowers have the ability to intervene (for humanitarian purposes or in their own interest) in interstate and intrastate conflicts. Both the United States and the Soviet Union were extremely active in third-party conflicts during the Cold War. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States has led numerous interventions—some with the support of the world community (as in the first Gulf War) and some without (as it instituted regime change in Iraq in 2003). The legitimacy of preemptive warfare, particularly when practiced by a superpower against a weak state, is hotly contested.

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