America And Globalization

“Globalisation will make our societies more creative and prosperous, but also more vulnerable (Lord Robertson, 2008)”. During the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century; the United States of America has been the most influential country in the world, allowing them to have power over everyone else. (Spicer, 2015). Brazil, Russia, India and China are all experiencing massive growth and are expected to rival the United States, in having the biggest economy in the world (Sachs, 2015). The development of these four countries will be noticed by the current established powers in the world, who will likely see it as a threat. The established economies will lose some of their current power, whilst the developing countries will experience a rapid rise in control and influence. Countries will be desperate to maintain their current power or to become more powerful then they currently are (Macken,2015). This shift in power could potentially see a conflict arise as the current powers want to stop the influence of the growing powers. A probability scale ranges from impossible too certain, with likely and unlikely positioned throughout the gauge. Inevitable is defined as; ‘certain to happen’ and ‘impossible to avoid or prevent’ (Farlex Dictionary, 2016). This means that the question is asking if there would definitely be a conflict between the established and rising powers. Things are more likely to occur than others, however humans are highly unpredictable creatures (Markman,2008). A similar scenario involving South Africa demonstrates that nothing is inevitable when it involves human beings making a decision. Since America dropped the two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (History Channel, 2015) and ended the second world war, the rest of the world has been desperate to create their own nuclear weapons (Njolstad,2003). It is presumed that countries would keep their nuclear weapons once it has been created. South Africa has shown nothing is inevitable when something involves decisions made by humans, by becoming the first ‘former nuclear state.’ The South African government spent billions of dollars building and testing their own nuclear weapon but decided to cancel their program and disarm their weapon (Jason,2016). It was widely assumed that nuclear proliferation was inevitable however South Africa demonstrated that it was very likely but not certain. This essay will follow a similar pattern and not argue if a conflict is impossible or certain. Instead this essay will argue if a conflict between established and rising powers is likely or not likely to occur. The United States of America has been the undisputed superpower of the 20th century (Sachs, 2015). There are four distinct reasons which show the power and importance America currently possess; economics, military, political influence and innovation (Bremmer, 2015). In 2014, 80% of …show more content…
Currently America uses their power to deter potential uprisings whilst also forcing countries to show political cooperation to receive funding and financial aid (Matthews, 2013). America are desperate to maintain their influence on world affairs; however, the rise of Asia means that they will have to make sacrifices. These sacrifices would be imperative to limit the likelihood of a conflict, because the rising Asian countries will want increased …show more content…
India and China in particular have decided that expanding their militaries could reduce the power America currently has over them whilst also increasing the power they have over the rest of the world. China is currently expanding its army by 18% per year whilst India is increasing its army by 8% (Macken, 2015). The increased military suggests that the Asian super powers are wary of each other but also strengthens the view that America and Europe would be nervous and be planning to form military alliances (Hayek, 2015).

America has already formed alliances throughout Asia and has military deployed throughout the continent (Sachs, 2015). Whilst these alliances were formed to strengthen its power in Asia, it could back fire if the rising powers conflict forcing America to pick a side. India and America formed an alliance in 2005, increasing their military ties (Katzman,2005) and although it doesn’t mean America has to fight side-by-side in a conflict, it could reduce the relationship between the countries. Numerous alliances will be formed between China, India and Japan and the established powers over the next