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| Use emerging superpowers like china/india in your exam. |
course you will be expected to understand and evaluate the concept of a superpower nation. To do this you must comprehend what makes a superpower. How superpowers exert their influence. Current superpowers and past superpowers. To get you thinking I will give a brief outline of the key material you need to know. Then I will post a sample paragraph from an A grade geography essay on a superpower question.So firstly here is what makes a superpower
. There are 3 key concepts to a superpower, economic might and influence (i.e large GDP, large resource stockpiles, skilled workforce), military power (not only manpower numbers but also technology and nuclear weapons) and political influence (seats at the UN, NATO, WTO etc etc). However to ensure you can turn this information into an A grade essay you must use lots of factual information and justified opinions here is an example essay paragraph on the question is the EU a world superpower.
"The economic state of these three superpower candidates (China, the USA and the EU) can be measured in a few ways. To begin, Real GDP is a simple way of analysing the size of each superpower’s economy and therefore its relative strength. As of 2009 figures (GDP Purchasing Power Parity) the EU had a GDP of $16.5 trillion, the USA $14.26 trillion and China $8.791 trillion. These figures show that the EU is by far the largest superpower in economic terms , it has double the GDP of China. However, the EU is a decentralised political union. The cumulative GDP of the EU means less since it is not all available to one nation or one government, like the situation with the USA or China. On the other hand, very little of a country's economic activity is conducted by the government so the fact there is no single unified government budget for the EU doesn't have that much of a negative impact on its economy. Most of the "world cities", cities holding substantial economic, political and cultural power, are situated within the borders of the EU, London, Berlin and Brussels to name a few. Therefore the EU is, referring back to the definition of superpower, highly influential on the world in terms of its economic power."To enrich your knowledge on superpowers here are some highly informal videos:
Cultural Aspects Of Superpowers
Military Aspects Of Superpowers