What Makes a Power Great? Part 2

Retuning to the Pyramid--Political Power

For this midweek update, I’m returning to the question of what makes a ‘Great’ Power, which started last week. For those who are new, this is because I believe it was a major error of geopolitical understanding for some to have claimed that Russia was a great power, and that therefore it should be allowed to play a predominant role in determining the fate of Ukraine (btw I believe this was an ethical as well as a strategic disaster). To do this, I’m returning to my Pyramid of Power and talking about the second slice: Political Efficiency/Accountability.

Last week I started with what is the base of every great power—its economic/technological strength. As I tried to outline, this is the foundation of great powerness, because without being an economic/technological leader, it does not matter how efficient a state’s political system is or how its society behaves—it can never reach great power status. Indeed trying to act like a great power without the proper economic/technological underpinnings normally results in disaster. Here is a link to that discussion.

What Makes a Power "Great"?

Now, just because a state is an economic/technological leader, that alone does not guarantee it will become a great power. Post-war Germany and Japan are the examples of two states that had enormous economic/technological power but never became great powers—because, I would argue, of different political/social limitations on how they chose to behave (will say more about this below and next week). Putin’s Russia, on the other hand, shows the problem when you have the political will/desire to be a great power, but lack the economic strength.

To try and describe what is needed in the political systems of great powers, again I will return to what I consider the 5 great powers that have existed since the second half of the 19th Century:

1: Great Britain (1800-1943)

2: United States (1900-today)

3: Germany (1900-1944)

4: USSR (1949-1980s)

5: China (2010-today)