THE TOP TEN POTENTIAL MILITARY SUPER POWER COUNTRIES

European Union

The European Union (EU) has been called an emerging superpower by academics. Many scholars and academics like T.R. Reid, Andrew Reding, Mark Leonard, Jeremy Rifkin, John McCormick, and some politicians like Romano Prodi and Tony Blair either believe that the EU is, or will become, a superpower in the 21st century. Mark Leonard cites several factors: the EU's large population, large economy (the EU has the largest economy in the world (the economy of the EU is slightly larger than that of the U.S. in terms of GDP purchasing (PPP) and ~24% larger in terms of nominal GDP, as of 2008), low inflation rates, the unpopularity and perceived failure of US foreign policy in recent years, and certain EU members states' high quality of life (when measured in terms such as hours worked per week, health care, social services).

 

John McCormick believes that the EU has already achieved superpower status, based on the size and global reach of its economy and on its global political influence. He argues that the nature of power has changed since the Cold War-driven definition of superpower was developed, and that military power is no longer essential to great power; he argues that control of the means of production is more important than control of the means of destruction, and contrasts the threatening hard power of the United States with the opportunities offered by the soft power wielded by the European Union.

Parag Khanna agrees, and like McCormick and Leonard believes that the EU will rival the power of the United States in the 21st century. He also mentions the large economy of the EU that European technologies more and more set the global standards and that European countries give the most development assistance. On the fact that the EU lacks a common army, he agrees with McCormick that the EU does not need one. The EU uses intelligence and the police to apprehend radical Islamists, social policy to try to integrate restive Muslim populations and economic strength to incorporate the former Soviet Union and gradually subdue Russia. Khanna also writes that South America, East Asia, and other regions prefer to emulate the "European Dream" than the American variant. This could possibly be seen in the South American Union and the African Union. Notably, the EU as a whole is among the most culturally diverse "entities" on the planet, with some of the world's largest and most influential languages being official within its borders.

Andrew Reding also takes the future EU enlargement into account. An eventual future accession of the rest of Europe would not only boost the economy of the EU, but it would also increase the EU's population to a level almost equal to that of India and China. The EU is qualitatively different from India and China, however. It is enormously more prosperous and technologically advanced. An important acceding nation is Turkey, which has been a candidate country of the European Union since 1999. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the Journal of Turkish Weekly in 2005 that: "In 10 or 15 years, the EU will be a place where civilizations meet. It will be a superpower with the inclusion of Turkey."

Author Robert J. Guttman writes in his book Europe in the New Century: Visions of an Emerging Superpower that the very definition of the term superpower has changed and that in the new 21st century, it doesn't only refer to states with "military power", but also to groups such as the European Union, which has strong market economics; young, highly educated workers who are savvy in high technology; and a global vision.
Alexander Stubb, the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs said on July 17, 2008 that he thinks the EU is and is not a superpower. While the EU is a superpower in the sense that it is the largest political union, single market and aid donor in the world, it is not a superpower in the defense or foreign policy spheres. Factors constraining the EU’s rise to superpower status include its lack of statehood in the international system, a lack of internal drive to project power worldwide, and nostalgia for the nation-state amongst some Europeans. To become an actual superpower in the coming years, Mr. Stubb urged the EU to approve and ratify the Lisbon Treaty, create an EU foreign ministry, develop a common EU defense, hold one collective seat at the UN Security Council and G8, and address what he described as the “sour mood” toward the EU prevalent in some European countries today.
A large-scale study made by Mark Leonard and Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, indicates that the EU is the most "popular" superpower. People across the world like to see the European Union become more influential. The study, which quizzed 57,000 people across 52 countries, found that the EU was "unique among the four big powers (China, the EU, Russia and the United States) in that no one wants to balance its rise." According to the European council on foreign relations, which sponsored the research, 35 per cent of world citizens want the 27-member bloc to grow in power. Britons were revealed to be the most ambivalent towards the EU's growing influence with a positive balance of just eight per cent. The voice of the global opinion is very powerful. The author Anthony Barnett has even called the world opinion "the second superpower."

Additionally, it is argued by commentators that full political integration is not required for the European Union to wield international influence: that its apparent weaknesses constitute its real strengths (as of its low profile diplomacy and the obsession with the rule of law) and that the EU represents a new and potentially more successful type of international actor than traditional ones; however, it is uncertain if the effectiveness of such an influence would be equal to that of a politically integrated superpower such as the United States.
"The EU is not and never will be a superpower" according to David Miliband, UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. Lacking a unified foreign policy and with an inability to project military power worldwide, the EU lacks "the substance of superpowers," who by definition have "first of all military reach [and] possess the capacity to arrive quickly anywhere with troops that can impose their government's will." EU parliamentarian Ilka Schroeder argues that conflicts such as the Israeli-Palestinian dispute see close EU involvement largely to compensate for European inability to project military power internationally.
The Economist editor Robert Lane Greene notes that the lack of a strong European military only exasperates the lack of unified EU foreign policy and discounts any EU arguments towards superpower status, noting especially that the EU's creation of a global response force rivaling the superpower's (America) is "unthinkable." The biggest barrier to European superpowerdom is that European elites refuse to bring their postmodern fantasies about the illegitimacy of military "hard power" into line with the way the rest of the world interprets reality" according to Soren Kern of Strategic Studies Group. Britain's Michael Howard has warned against the "worry" that many Europeans are pushing for greater EU integration to counter-balance the United States, while Europe's total reliance on soft (non-military) power is in part because of it's lack of a "shared identity." While to some the European Union should be a "model power" unafraid of using military force and backing free trade, it's military shortcomings argue against superpower status.

 

Other military super powers:

• USA
• China
• Russia
• UK
• Israel
• India
• France
• Germany
• Japan