Open AccessThe Case for America's Continued Superpower Status
Author(s) -
Dennis Shiraev,
Grant Gibson
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
cornell international affairs review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2156-0536
pISSN - 2156-0528
DOI - 10.37513/ciar.v2i2.366
Subject(s) - superpower , ideology , political science , state (computer science) , development economics , political economy , attractiveness , china , law , economics , politics , psychology , algorithm , computer science , psychoanalysis
Is America really in decline as a global superpower? We examine current arguments for America’s economic decline and argue that a purely economic analysis is insufficient for evaluating a country’s status as a global superpower. Our comprehensive definition of superpower incorporates military strength, internal stability, and the global attractiveness of a state’s culture and ideology that it presents to the rest of the world. America is the only state fitting of this comprehensive definition of a superpower in the 21st century, while all other states frequently cited as emerging global powers fail to meet the criteria we lay out in this paper.