After the Cold War, political power in the world had become more distributed among more countries other than the United States and the Soviet Union, which has led to the emergence of major powers. A major power is a country or a state that is powerful enough to influence events throughout the world. The international media follows its actions, which is a sign of its vast political influence. Some examples of major powers include the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Japan, China, India and Germany. These countries exert influence over other countries and their actions can affect other countries as well. Among them, China and India have been considered as potential Superpowers. Brazil as an emerging major power In South America, an emerging major power is Brazil. This is because the country matches almost all the criteria of being a major power, which includes its population, considered to be the fifth largest in the world. Another criterion that Brazil is able to match is that it is an important commodity producer (minerals and agriculture). Brazil is also one of the world's largest democracies and there are relatively few serious internal disputes. In recent times, Brazil has also been considered a leader among developing countries in the World Trade Organization especially on issues on agriculture. Alongside with Japan and Germany, Brazil is also claiming a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and it has also contributed to various peacekeeping missions around the world. More importantly, Brazil has the ninth largest GDP in the world and its economy is industrialized, which makes it an important player in capital markets. However, there are some issues that hinder Brazil from being considered a major power such as having a large portion of its population living in poverty and having a poorly equipped military. It also has limited influence in international organizations as compared to other major powers and its economy is not considered strong enough to have considerable effect on the world economy. Lastly, the country has still not developed nuclear weapons, which is an important criterion for countries to be considered a major power. Brazil can be considered an emerging major power because it can match most of the criteria of other major powers such as China and India. However, there are still some issues like poverty and a poorly equipped military that Brazil needs to address for it to be fully considered a major power. |
