There are various lists of those Middle Powers but none overlap perfectly. So I turn to you to choose countries that fit the description and tell us on which criteria you based your choice. You can pick up to 4 countries.
The US and China are excluded from this thread as the former is the sole Super Power at the moment and the latter may be in the process of becoming one.
4 makes this difficult, but I included two countries that are actively engaged in effective regional warfare: Saudi Arabia and Russia. Whether those wars will ultimately meet their goals is unclear, but clearly they are engaged in “exerting a degree of strength and influence”.
I would have also included the UK and Japan, although Japan’s inclusion would be questionable. Certainly it has the capability to exercise influence should it choose to do so.
It was indeed arbitrary and I realize that I did not include Israël and Pakistan, two countries which should be in there, probably more so than, say, Argentina and Thaïland.
Can a mod replace the latter countries with the former two ? And perhaps extend the choices to 8, which is also arbitrary but more generous ? What I’d like to avoid is people going “Well, you can make a claim for all of them”, making the poll useless.
The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council should be included. So that is Russia, France & the UK.
Germany effectively runs the EU and is the largest economy of the EU. So they have to make the cut. India by number of people and size of the economy is a really strong candidate. Japan as a tech and economic giant. Brazil is a growing power and made my cut. Though I can see arguments against them. Italy is iffy but Moonrise won my vote with the cultural influence.
I could see an argument for South Korea also, but went with Italy instead.
North Korea with it’s nuclear weapon program and constant threats. They are a very poor small country with not much to offer the world. Yet, the world has to consider them in many decisions where they would otherwise be ignored.
Yeah, Italy is one of the countries I hemmed and hawed about for #8. I went with South Korea, due to their economy and their own domestic fighter plane production.
Probably, however, the following members of the United Nations would generally be recognized as middle powers: in Europe — Belgium, the Netherlands, and Poland; in the Americas — Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico; in the Pacific — Australia, and India.
Its hard to think of Poland and Canada in the same league. Their levels of development are far different. Germany and Israel seem too powerful to be middle powers even though neither is a permanent member of the UNSC. Israel is the military superpower in its region and Germany is the economic superpower of Europe.
I’d guess I’d consider India and Brazil to be middle powers. Basically several of the BRICS countries. Brazil, India, maybe South Africa.
A undergrad PoliSci prof of mine once said that a nation’s ability to manufacture, store, and effectively deliver nuclear weapons was the very definition of a super power. I’m not sure it I buy that but it’s something to consider, anyway.
Bolding mine; Germany was an occupied country and Israel literally didn’t exist yet when the article was published. It makes a whole lot more sense out of the sentence
For practical purposes the great powers at the present time are those which hold permanent seats on the Security Council, just as during the war they were those which participated in the meetings of heads of government on high policial and military policy.
Not having to specify what war they’re talking about; in 1947 they were obviously talking about WWII. It also explains this
not being addressed; there was only one country with nuclear weapons in 1947.
I feel like, in order to pin down which nations are “Middle Powers”, we also have to at least define all of the categories above and below them. Clearly, a “superpower” is not a “middle power”… Is there a category of “great power” between those two? What marks the line between a “great power” and a “middle power”? And what’s below a “middle power”? Is that just “nonpowers”, or is there a category of “minor power”?
It occurred to me to look into the origin of the word superpower and when it was first used, unsurprisingly it was first used during WWII in describing what the post-war world might look like:
The term was first used to describe nations with greater than great power status as early as 1944, but only gained its specific meaning with regard to the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II. This was because the United States and the Soviet Union had proved themselves to be capable of casting great influence in global politics and military dominance. The term in its current political meaning was coined by Dutch-American geostrategistNicholas Spykman in a series of lectures in 1943 about the potential shape of a new post-war world order.
