World Power
A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale.[2]
Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power influence, which may cause middle or small powers to consider the great powers' opinions before taking actions of their own. International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities, spatial aspects, and status dimensions.[3]
While some nations are widely considered to be great powers, there is considerable debate on the exact criteria of great power status.
Historically, the status of great powers has been formally recognized in organizations such as the Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815[1][4][5] or the United Nations Security Council, of which permanent members are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[1][6][7]
The United Nations Security Council, NATO Quint, the G7, the BRICs and the Contact Group have all been described as great power concerts.[8][9]
The term "great power" was first used to represent the most important powers in Europe during the post-Napoleonic era.
The "Great Powers" constituted the "Concert of Europe" and claimed the right to joint enforcement of the postwar treaties.[10]
The formalization of the division between small powers[11] and great powers came about with the signing of the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814.
Since then, the international balance of power has shifted numerous times, most dramatically during World War I and World War II.
In literature, alternative terms for great power are often world power[12] or major power.[13]
Characteristics
There are no set or defined characteristics of a great power.
These characteristics have often been treated as empirical, self-evident to the assessor.[14]
However, this approach has the disadvantage of subjectivity.
As a result, there have been attempts to derive some common criteria and to treat these as essential elements of great power status. Danilovic (2002) highlights three central characteristics, which she terms as "power, spatial, and status dimensions," that distinguish major powers from other states. The following section ("Characteristics") is extracted from her discussion of these three dimensions, including all of the citations.[15]
Early writings on the subject tended to judge states by the realist criterion, as expressed by the historian A. J. P. Taylor when he noted that "The test of a great power is the test of strength for war."[16]
Later writers have expanded this test, attempting to define power in terms of overall military, economic, and political capacity.[17] Kenneth Waltz, the founder of the neorealist theory of international relations, uses a set of six criteria to determine great power: population and territory, resource endowment, military strength, economic capability, political stability and competence.[18]
John Mearsheimer defines great powers as those that "have sufficient military assets to put up a serious fight in an all-out conventional war against the most powerful state in the world."[19]