Questions on International Politics
Great
Powers have become irrelevant for global governance. Discuss and illustrate.
Abstract
We know the past of the Great Powers, we all heard about them in the school, but what about them now? Now, when there is no colony for them, when they do not have wars against one another, when they can have weapons but they do not use them against the other? What is their power and what is their relevance in global governance now without all that territory? Question after question, what we can only try to answer now and maybe one day one of our so many different answers will be taught in the school as well, as one of them will most probably be correct. This essay will prove that Great Powers are still relevant, even if the kind of that relevance has changed.
We know the past of the Great Powers, we all heard about them in the school, but what about them now? Now, when there is no colony for them, when they do not have wars against one another, when they can have weapons but they do not use them against the other? What is their power and what is their relevance in global governance now without all that territory? Question after question, what we can only try to answer now and maybe one day one of our so many different answers will be taught in the school as well, as one of them will most probably be correct. This essay will prove that Great Powers are still relevant, even if the kind of that relevance has changed.
In this essay, I would
like to argue why Great Power are or are not irrelevant in the global
governance nowadays. Discussing both sides from different writers and
arguments, then I will compare them and give an answer to the title of the
essay adding and illustrating it with my own points. My main questions which –
I think – should be answer from both
sides are the following: What is the difference in the operation of Great
Powers now than in the 19th-20th century and before? Did their “job”, responsibility
and therefore power became more or less? Did they get/lose more power or just
other countries or other actors – like civil societies – became more relevant due
to globalization? So, do Great Powers have the same power just less relevant as
other actors became more relevant? What was power then and now? Do Great Powers
still have the most of that ‘power’ (money, weapons, markets, or whatever it is
now and was through the history)?
First of all, then let us
see the change – if there is any kind of change. Looking at history until the
1650’s the Great Powers were the empires of the Dutch, the Habsburg, the
Ottoman, the Sweden and the Russian (all the Eurasian continent). Then then the
Great Powers have changed a bit, Austria, Prussia, Russia, France and the
United Kingdom became the ‘rulers’ and stayed in position until the 1890’s,
when Prussia and Austria had been replaced with Austria-Hungary, Italy and
Germany. These states stayed in power, later in the 1920’s the US and japan
joined them in the group of Great Powers. (Peña, 10/10/2017) What has changed
since then? I say imperialism. “New” imperialism to be clear, if we take the
old differently, the one from 1450 to 1750 which was “direct administration of
different communities (colonies) from an imperial centre” (Watson, 2009). This
new kind of imperialism took place between the 1870’s and the turn of the
century and it broke the power of Great Powers in their colonies as this
imperialism brought nationalism everywhere which stimulated the fight for
independence and nation-states. Also, this imperialism made the society and the
economy more international and global, but also a hierarchy within these. So
territorially I say yes, Great Powers have less power therefore relevance as
they lost their colonies during the 20th century.
Secondly, I would like
to argue this change, if it necessarily means less relevance or not for Great
Powers in global governance. Let us look at the economy and military after the
territory, the other two key things in a state’s relevance in the global order.
Before the imperialism and decolonisation Great Powers had the most of
everything (territory, market, money, population. Etc.) because they had most
of the colonies, therefore people and markets, therefore money and eventually
the military power. (Spruyt, 2000) But what counts as power nowadays in global
governance? As the civilised West does not have battles and wars anymore I
would say territorial and military power is not the most important thing
anymore as it was before at the time of colonizing rush. Of course, military is
still relevant as the ownership of nuclear weapon gives fear for other actors,
but it is market and money which rules now. You may ask, why military is not so
important, U.S.A. has the most powerful military and they are the leaders of
the World. My answer is, if you have money, you can have that so-called
military. But do the U.S.A. fights for territory? Did they ever do? No. They
only use their military for keeping peace and specially freedom around the
World, they always did, never had a single piece of colony, but their power is
hiding in that. (Wikipedia, 2018) I would say they are the one who is capable
of keeping the peace by forcing it with that military (let us just see the
World Wars). But how these states – China and the U.S.A., the “Great Powers
after the end of the Soviet Union” I would say – have the most money of the
World? Because the richest companies are in these states and their money is
there, also in a way they invest in each other so their money “stays between
them” (U.S.A. uses China for creating its products – all the richest companies
of the U.S. like the Apple – while China uses the U.S.A. as a market for its
products, the Chinese export is four times more than the U.S. import in China) (U.S.
Census Bureau, 2017). So, I would say, the U.S.A. and China has the most
relevant income in the World, therefore they are the most relevant economically
and who has rich economy with money has a word in the global governance as
other less economically strong countries and their markets are depending on
them. Also, important to mention Japan, Germany or the United Kingdom right
after them, they also belong to the group of “the greats” economically, but
significantly behind. (Wikipedia, 2017)
Thirdly, I would like
to illustrate how global governance works today, mentioning civil societies as
they are becoming more and more relevant and powerful due to global issues
where only they can act and react (for example climate change, terrorism,
migration or pollution). (Peña, 14/11/2017)
On the other hand, I see that civil
societies can be relevant in global governance only in global questions
mentioned above, but in other global governing institutions, like the Security
Council of the United Nations or the NATO Great Powers still have strong power
and relevance via their veto or strength of military combined by money (which
comes from strong economy) as the U.S. does in the latter. (The Data Team cited
in The Economist, 2017)
Last but not least then
I would like to state my view after seeing both sides I say Great Powers are
exactly as relevant as they always been but in a different way. Great Powers do
not have their colonies anymore, but they are still there everywhere around the
World on the markets and they do have the nuclear weapons. Great powers – the U.S.
and China specially – are still the most powerful in military (Bender, 2015)
and in economy (Bajpai, 2017) which gives them the power to control others. If
we just think about the born of the European Union, wasn’t it because of the
U.S.? Because Europe wanted something equally strong integration similar to
America’s union of states? Also, why would there are academic debates about the
position of the U.S.A. losing (against China) if there is no relevance in Great
Powers? (Stange in Lundestad, pp. 197-211)
Also, it is important to come back
to the title of the essay and see that it is about “… “governance” and not “government” … [so this is to] …discuss the product and not the producer.” (Weiss
and Wilkinson, 2014, p.213) This means, we are talking about Great Powers in a
governance which does not have government, which makes it so complex and
therefore I say Great Powers are relevant, there is no one global government
which would control them in being relevant, they just turned the way how they
are relevant.
In a conclusion, I
would like to sum up that the Great Powers today are obviously the U.S.A. and China,
far behind maybe we can add Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. Reacting to
the title, the relevance in global governance of the U.S.A. and China can be
seen in the U.N., their veto power with their size of population, in the
economy and market, where they have the biggest income so the most of the
World’s money, also I would like to mention we listen to American music, we
follow American trends, not Indian or Mexican, this is also a sort of impact on
the World.
As a final thought, I want to say
that even though Great Powers cannot show their power in war or conquest, they
are still extremely relevant in the united Nations, in the NATO, in the World
Economy, in the everyday trends what we follow, in governance, as the US
“forced” other states around the world to follow democracy in order to keep
peace and not letting communism get into power all over the World. We, other
non-leader countries work as the U.S. or China wants us to – rather the U.S. as
China stated clearly, they do not want to take the leading position they only
want to grow their economy but they leave the “Grandfather of the World” title
for the US. So, the US is the one leading Great Power which has the power for
keeping the peace, which is the biggest power today, in contrast with the
colonizer power before the World Wars. Today not only the state itself, but its
companies have the power in the World Economy, also civil societies have a
great impact on global governance. I would say, Great Powers just changed their
relevance way from territorial and therefore global governing (as they had the
lands in their hands) to economical, from actual physical power to authority and
also, they share the global governance with civil societies. So, I say based on
my research and the mentions above that Great Powers – the U.S. and China – are
still relevant but rather in global economy and trade than in governance as
global governance is rather civil global societies “job” due to those global
issues.
Bibliography
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