Global Balance Of Power In America

America has been a world leader, since the beginning of the twentieth century, however, it is questionable, if they will continue to be world leaders. “People around the world believe the ‘global balance of power’ is shifting away from the United States… a majority of people said that China would replace, or already has replaced, the U.S as the leading superpower. This is despite the fact that the U.S has spent well over $15 billion on public diplomacy since 1999” (Cohen, Dale, Smith, 2012). Rising developing countries such as China and Russia, pose a threat to American leadership, in many ways, their power is almost equal to Americas.

The essay examines how America’s status as world leader is being challenged by rapidly developing countries

such as Russia and China. This discussion focuses on America’s status being challenged, in order to understand what America’s role in today’s world really is, especially because America’s influence around the world is decreasing. This may be because of how world leaders are viewed around the world, specifically regarding the current American President, Donald Trump. The essay first looks at how America became a superpower, America’s use of power, before highlighting how Russia and China challenge America.

As world war one ended, the world saw a global shift of power, from Europe to America.

During the Treaty of Versailles, Wilson’s fourteen points proved how different America was, when compared to the old powers of Europe. America’s ideologies were based on maintaining peace, especially between the European powers, but at the time America was still an isolated country. America’s isolation was largely due to it’s need to remove itself from world wars and global

issues.

Despite, its overall strength as a nation, America did not want to be world leader. They especially did not want to lead Europe who owed America billions of dollars, which they had borrowed to fund world war one. Even though the Great Depression essentially began in America (later spreading worldwide), America’s industry improved immensely during world war two. Throughout the war, America was the only country which managed to support not only its own troops, but also the allies. After world war two, America was finally established as a world leader. In the end, it came out to be the stronger country, who had successfully survived a war.
America brought the world through the horrific twentieth century and into the twenty first. It was the time when the world chased the American Dream, where the New World was liberation, wealth and so much more. During this time, America’s position as world leader was neither challenged nor opposed. However, today America “is being challenged by a variety of forces- by powerful authoritarian governments, and anti liberal fundamentalist movements, as well as by shifts in the global economy” (Kagan, 2016). This questions what the role of America is in the world today? For almost a century, America has been forced to endure the status of world leader, while losing global influence (especially under Trump’s reign), and being continuously challenged by developing countries such as Russia and China. In this essay, I will argue how America’s status as world leader is being challenged by rapidly developing countries such as Russia and China.

By definition, power is the ability to influence or impose on others, while resisting them. In comparison to other states, power is never enough. No one is satisfies with the ‘power’ they do have, on the off chance that there will be someone else, more powerful than them. Dominant countries such as the United States, Russia and China, do not require power (or a lot of it), but they lust for it. Thus, power becomes an end in itself. By chasing, power, these countries attempt to establish state security, because “supporting democracy is not just a matter of keeping faith
with our own values. It is about national security” (Kagan, 2016). Power is divided into two subsections: hard power and soft power.
“US soft power works when backed by ‘hard’ military capabilities. An adversary must also believe that the US president will use those military capabilities” (Bay, 2017). Soft power is based on cultural influences and ideologies, rather than physical materials. It can be difficult to control, or even counted. At the same time, if its is a positive idea (such as westernisation, democracy, or America as world leader), the idea will, and can, put a country on the top. In this day and age, the American culture is widely spread around the world, so much so, that it is considered the ‘norm’. The idea of a modern world, is an American ideology, It is one example of American’s power as world leader.

While America, balances hard and soft power equally, Russia struggles with soft power. Despite its military strength, Russia’s soft power is based mostly around their shared history, culture and language. This power centres itself around the Russian community, and remains closed off to other people. Russia’s soft power will not be beneficial to the country in the long term. On the other hand, China’s power is similar to that of America, “to this end, China has continued its programme of building ‘cultural aircraft carriers’, an expansion of its media and cultural footprint around the world” (Gracie, 2015).

From world war allies to oppositions in the cold war, Russia and America have always had a rocky relationship.

As a European ally, America “faces Russian aggression, ranging from cyber attacks and energy coercion to conventional military might and a renewed emphasis on nuclear weapons” (Hicks, 2016). Although, Russia is a developing country, it is a strong competitor for world leader. Like America, Russia has active space programs, nuclear power, as well as hard power (military). Not only that, Russia has permanent membership in the United Nations. At the same time, ex- President Barack Obama, disagrees with the idea of Russia as a challenger: “Ukraine was governed by a corrupt ruler was a stooge of Mister Putin. Syria was Russia’s only ally in the region. And today, rather than being able to count on their support and maintain the based they had in Syria, which they’ve had for a long time, Mister Putin now is devoting his own troops, his own military, just to barely hold together by a thread his sole ally…. If you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we’ve got a different definition of leadership” (Obama interview,

2015).

China is a rapidly developing country, “emerging from a defensive diplomacy, dating back decades, China was suddenly engaging with the world, wooing friends with a subtle, softer approach and using its popularity to make gains, even as America’s popularity around the world was plummeting” (Kurlantzick, 2007). In many ways, China’s development puts the country further ahead than Russia, which after its development, is showing signs of slowing down. China’s cautious use of soft power, may have gone unnoticed by the world at first, but the country is now leading world economy. China’s culture and ideologies is spread across the world, through it. Chinese diplomacy and its relations with other nations, reflects a positive image of China. As well as that, China’s military continues to grow stronger day by day, while the country looks for ways to expand, “the new military capabilities will ‘expand or improve the ability of the People’s Liberation Army to conduct a range of externally focused operations, to include combat insertion, island landing operations humanitarian assistance/ disaster relief operations, noncombatant evacuation operations and peacekeeping missions… expanded military power projection capabilities could ‘also strengthen China’s traditional war-fighting capabilities against weaker neighbours” (Gertz, 2016).