Who's the next dominant super power?

[Xellos]

Yes, another serious topic! mwahaha!

Anyways,w e all know that it's inevitable that the US will lose it's place as the dominant super power... so who's next? EU? China? India? teh 3vil Finland who created teh N-gage?!

[Nevan]

I hope not China nor India, mainly because they suck more than the US.

The US might remain if we get that monkey for a President out.

I'd laugh if it was Canada.

The EU could, but France (military wise) has sucked ever since Napoleon left, Italy couldn't even hold back the Germans in WWII, the same is true with Poland. The only way the EU could is if they all joined together, which I doubt will happen anytime soon.

Below the Mexico, Central America and South America, Cuba and all those places down there won't for sure.

Personally Russia would be cool to have back, but all in all it'll remain the US, probably.

[Xellos]

I didn't mean now, but eventually the US won't remain dominant, Be it losing a war, or just crappy economy, US won't have the top forever. Just like Britain and Rome and Greece and all those befroe us ^_^

When I said EU I meant all of Europe together, which would include France [img]tongue.gif[/img] _

[Nevan]

Oh, I see, you mean in the future.

Well probably the EU or probably all those in the UN. Like everyone in the UN join together to form a super nation. And crush smaller nations.

[melfice]

Mmm...... Japan, For sure, leave them to build the Evas [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[One Classy Bloke]

But China seems to be having big problems with aids at the moment.

IRT Nevan: You don't know your history, lad. The Germans took over most of Europe by using a brillant tactic called 'Blitzkreig' or 'Lightning War' in English. The idea was to destroy communications with bomber planes as soon as possible, then invade by land. Simple, but it took the defenders by surprise, so they nearly had no time to react. France's miltary was quite strong back then.

As for future superpowers, Britain lost it's power with the lost of the colonies, so without expanding, we don't have the resources to become a super power again. *sniff*

A possible super power could be the Middle East. If someone could unify some of the countries there and take advantage of the resources they have, it could be very powerful. If only they would stop fighting.

[Daigotsu]

If not the US, then I'd hope Europe.

[mrwiseman]

IRT N(1):

The US might remain if we get that monkey for a President out.

Lately, the US is growing more powerful military-wise, but it has a HELLUVA debt, its economy is sluggish, and the currency is weak. I'll make this observation: with Clinton, the country had less international debt, and a much stronger economy. And I don't think it's because we are through a worldwide economical crisis. The US, Germany, and France, are in a crisis, yes. Not Spain - we're still growing steadily, and not only we are reducing our debt to the minimum, but the Spanish budget is positive and we're building a good reserve to invest later. Greece and Ireland are also doing fairly well. So I doubt they can blame it on the crisis. That international unstability didn't affect us because of our Government's smart economical politics. Sure, we don't have a hundred nuclear bombs. But we're making money, and investing it on free private-quality health services, state-of-the-art infrastructures and rail system, and other stuff, and we don't owe the world one quarter of it. I think this is a more intelligent strategy.


The only way the EU could is if they all joined together, which I doubt will happen anytime soon.

The EU is already joined. Despite some notable discrepancies, it has an unified market, and fairly unified economy and law basis. Any media or leader saying otherwise is lying to diss the EU, probably because they are afraid of its power in the future.


Personally Russia would be cool to have back

Russia is currently in a state of bankruptcy. Even though I think president Putin's administration is great, and he's really doing the best that can be done, Russia is still miles behind being a real power. And they owe everybody a lot of money, so even if they start making money, they'll have to give it to us. What I would want to see, though, is Russia joining the EU, at least as an associate country (sure, their economy don't meet the stability requeriments, but hey, France doesn't either, they are a bunch of llamas who criticize other countries when THEY are the ones who are slowing Europe down now).


IRT Xellos(2):

US won't have the top forever.

No country, Empire, or civilization, ever had hegemony forever.


IRT Melfice:

Japan, For sure

I doubt it, they are too small and even though they are #1 in technology and new forms of art, I think they would need something like the EU, and they can't do it where they are. Even if they joined with South Korea (traditional enemies), they wouldn't be enough. And China is too poor and has a different social system. I doubt it will happen. However, I think they'll remain top-5 for a long time.


IRT OCB:

France's miltary was quite strong back then.

But they are far too weak when resisting occupation. They lack stubbornness and determination.


As for future superpowers, Britain lost it's power with the lost of the colonies

Everybody did [img]frown.gif[/img]


A possible super power could be the Middle East.

God no! Who knows what they would do, probably a worldwide jihad. And then they would enslave the 50% of the world (women), and probably some non-believing men as well. Besides, they are way too poor, they have a stupid culture which prevents and fights development, and they depend on a single limited resource. If they become stronger because of oil, all what the civilized countries have to do is to stop making gas-based cars and use electricity instead - and they will be done for.


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I'm pretty sure the next dominant superpower will be the European Union, or whatever it transforms in. This could happen anytime from 50 to 250 in the future. The reason is simple: we have a lot of people, we have a lot of companies of all kinds, we offer a lot of services of all kinds, and since we are several different countries, when crisis strikes France, Spain is strong and fuels the positive numbers, when something fails in Spain, you can get it in Germany, etc, you get the idea. Our currency is already the strongest, and it's backed by a lot of countries, not just a single country which may enter crisis or not. Finally, we don't have cultural limitations like African and some Asian countries have (like hatred for technology, women having no rights and being unable to study and work, etc.).

[One Classy Bloke]

"But they are far too weak when resisting occupation. They lack stubbornness and determination."

Unlikely, remember what i said about 'Blitzkreig'?

About Middle East superpower: If they could sort out their problems, they could become a superpower. Thats just a possiblity.

"Finally, we don't have cultural limitations like African and some Asian countries have (like hatred for technology, women having no rights and being unable to study and work, etc.)."

I'm sure you really mean the Middle East. Africa have too many problems to be sexist (not unheard of though) and Asia is pretty advanced in most places.

Also, could you tell me what Spain did during the Second World War? Spain was never mentioned when i was learning about the war (not even included on the maps, except for a small bit the size of Portugal!).

[mrwiseman]

IRT OCB:

"But they are far too weak when resisting occupation. They lack stubbornness and determination."

Unlikely, remember what i said about 'Blitzkreig'?

Yup. And after the lighting attacks, once occupated, they didn't fight. Look at what's happening in Iraq. The iraqi(sp?) are resisting. The French aren't good at this.


If they could sort out their problems, they could become a superpower

They could become a superpower, like Argentine could, but is it likely? The problems they should fix are:

- islam. Once they abandon their fanatic, terrorist, troglodite culture, they may be as us.
- Oil. As I said, in a hundred years their only source of incomes will be kaput. And earlier, if the powerful countries wanted.


"Finally, we don't have cultural limitations like African and some Asian countries have (like hatred for technology, women having no rights and being unable to study and work, etc.)."

I'm sure you really mean the Middle East. Africa have too many problems to be sexist (not unheard of though) and Asia is pretty advanced in most places.

I meant the islamic countries mostly, but islam is not only in Middle East, it's also on Nigeria (remember the woman they wanted to kill because she had a son after widowed because she was raped by a familiar? That's uber-islamic), Pakistan, India, and other Asian countries with a lot of problems (though India's people who can reach education are said to be very good at programming), and small African and Asian countries have technology-phobic cultures which want to be left alone with their rituals and stuff.


Also, could you tell me what Spain did during the Second World War?

Nothing. It was economically and socially ruined because a civil war (that was the result of the disastrous republic) that just ended when the WW2 started. It was in no position to fight (besides political unstability), so it tried to get the most money out of the conflict without actually going into war. I think that position of avoiding the conflict, however, is questionable. The problem is Spain ended not being a good friend of either Germany and Italy, nor the US, France, and Britain. It was isolated, and the timid politics it made things worse. Spain started to open and recover in the last years of Franco, but mostly, when constitutional Monarchy was restored in 1978 and it became a member of the NATO, the EU, etc.