Contemporary centres of power Class -12th

Contemporary centres of power

• Class: 12th

• Subject: Political Science

• Topic: Contemporary centres of power

• Resources: Notes, Important Questions

  Class 12 (Political science ) -Contemporary centres of power

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With the end of bipolarity in the world politics in the early 1990s, it became evident that new centres of economic and political power could limit the powers of US dominance. The New Centres of Power emerged in the form of European Union (Europe), the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Asia, SAARC, BRICS in different parts of the world. These organisations tried to transform the countries in the region into prosperous economies. On the other hand, rise of China's economy has also made a great impact on the world politics.

European Union EU

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, there was a dilemma among many European leaders over the status of Europe. The Second World War destroyed many of the assumptions and structures on which European states had based their relations. The Cold War aided the integration of Europe after 1945. The European economy was revived by financial support by USA under the Marshall Plan. A new collective security structure under NATO was created by the US.

Under the Marshall Plan, the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was established in 1948.

It acts like a mechanism to aid the West European states. It became a forum where the Western European states began to cooperate on trade and economic issues. Another step in the direction of political cooperation was the establishment of the Council of Europe in 1949. Gradually, the process of economic integration of European capitalist countries proceeded leading to the formation of 'European Economic Community' in 1957. This process acquired a political dimension with the foundation of the European Parliament. The collapse of Soviet Bloc led to the establishment of the European Union (EU) in 1992.

EU was founded for a common foreign and security policy, cooperation on justice and home affairs, and the creation of a single currency. Over the change in time, the European Union has turned from an economic union to a political one. It has also started to act like a nation state. Although it doesn't have its own constitution but it comprises of its own flag, anthem, founding date and currency.

It also has some form of common foreign and security polic in dealing with other nations. EU's area of cooperation was expanded while acquiring new members especially from th erstwhile Soviet bloc. The EU has economic, political and diplomatic and military influence

Economic Influence of EU

• The economic influence of European Union is discussed below
• The EU is the world's second biggest economy with a GDP of more than $17 trillion in 2016, next to the United States of America.
• Its currency Euro can pose a threat to the dominance of US dollar.
• The EU's share of world trade is much larger than that of the United States allowing it to be more assertive in trade disputes with the US and China.
• It has an economic influence over its closest neighbours as well as in Asia and Africa.
• It also functions as an important bloc in international economic organisations such as WTO.

Political and Diplomatic Influence of EU

• The political and diplomatic influence of EU is discussed below
• The EU also has political and diplomatic influence as two members of EU i.e. Britain and France, hold permanent seats in the UN Security Council with several non-permanent members.
• The EU is enabled to influence some US policies such as the current US position on Iran's Nuclear Programme.
• Its diplomacy, economic investment and negotiations have been effective as in the case of its dialogue with China on human rights and environmental degradation.

Military Influence of EU

• The military influence of EU is discussed below
• The EU's combined armed forces are the second largest in the world and also come second after the total spending's of US in defence.
• Britain and France as EU members also possess nuclear arsenal of 550 nuclear warheads. It is also the world's second most important source of space and communication technology.
• The EU is able to intervene in economic, political and social areas. But in many areas member states have their own foreign and defence policy that are often at odds with each other. For example, Britain was by the side of US during the Iraq invasion whereas Germany and France oppose the American policy.
• A deep-seated Euro- skepticism is evident in some parts of Europe regarding Europe's integrationist agenda. For example, UK's former PM Margaret Thatcher kept UK out of the European market. Denmark and Sweden resisted 'Maastricht Treaty' and the adoption of Euro. Thus, it limits the ability of EU to act in matters of foreign relations and defence.

 Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established in 1967 with the signing of the ASEAN declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by its founding An countries. The founding members of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand Indonesia

Over the years, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar (Burma) and Cambodia also joined ASEAN taking its strength to ten members.

Therefore, ASEAN is a regional organisation which was established to promote political and social stability amid rising tensions among the Asia-Pacific's post colonial states, The motto of ASEAN is One Vision, One Identity, One Community.

Background of ASEAN

The Asian region faced the economic and political consequences of numerous colonialisms, both European and Japanese, before and during Second World War. It faced issues of nation-building, the ravages of poverty and economic backwardness and the pressure to align with one of the great powers during the Cold War at the end of the war.

This was a prescription for conflict, which South-East Asian countries couldn't afford. Efforts to unite Asia and the Third World, such as the Bandung Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement, were unsuccessful in establishing informal cooperation and interaction conventions. As a result, the South-East Asian alternative by establishing the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In the year 1995, the members of ASEAN signed a deal to create a nuclear free zone in South-East Asia to preserve the South-East Asian region as a region free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. The ASEAN adopted vision 2020 in 1997 and by 2015 it launched ASEAN community which comprised of these pillars.

• ASEAN Political -Security Community

• ASEAN Economy Community

• ASEAN Socio-cultural Community

Objectives of ASEAN

The objectives of ASEAN are as follows

• To accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development for properous and peaceful community of South-East Asian Nations.

• To promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law and the principles of the United Nations.

• To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interests in the economic, social, cultural, technical scientific and administrative fields.

• The current economic strength of ASEAN, particularly its economic relevance as a trading and investment partner to emerging Asian nations like India and China, makes this an attractive proposition. During the Cold War, India's foreign policy did not give ASEAN enough attention to ASEAN. In recent years, however, India has attempted to make amendments. Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are three ASEAN members with which it has linked trade agreements

• In contrast to the EU, ASEAN has no ambition for supranational organisations and institutions. ASEAN countries have praised what has come to be known as the ASEAN Way, a form of informal, non-confrontational and cooperative contact. The functioning of ASEAN depends on the respect for national sovereignty.

ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community

The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community aims to lift the quali its people through cooperative activities that are people orien people-centred, environmentally, friendly and geared toward the promotion of sustainable development to face new and emerging challenges in ASEAN.

ASEAN Security Community

The ASEAN Security Community was based on the notion to avoid territorial disputes, so that it would not escalate into armed confrontation For this, ASEAN had several agreements into force by which member states promised to uphold peace, neutrality, cooperation. non-interference and respect for national differences and sovereign rights (ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was established in 1994 to carry out coordination of security and foreign policy)

ASEAN Economic Community

(ASEAN is principally an economic association, while the ASEAN region is much smaller economy than US, the EU and Japan's economy is growing much faster.) The

objectives of ASEAN Economic Community are To create a common market and production base within ASEAN states to aid social and economic development in the region.

To improve the existing ASEAN Dispute Settlement Mechanism for resolving economic dispute.

To create a Free Trade Area (FTA) for investment, labour and services. The US and China have already moved fast to negotiate FTAS and ASEAN.

ASEAN Vision 2020

ASEAN is rapidly growing into an important regional organisation with its Vision 2020, to define an outward- looking role for ASEAN in international community t build upon its existing policy to encourage negotiations over conflicts in the region. Thus, ASEAN had mediated the end of the Cambodian conflict, East Timor crisis and meets annually to discuss East Asian cooperation.

The current economic strength of ASEAN is especially its economic relevance as a trading and investment partner to the growing Asian economics such as India and China, makes this an attractive proposition. India's foreign policy did not gave much attention to ASEAN during Cold War years, but in recent times, it has tried to amend it and have signed FTA's with three ASEAN members, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

However, ASEAN's strength lies in its policies of interaction and consultation with member states, with discussion partners and with other non-regional organisation. Further, it is the only regional association to provide political forum for Asia and other major powers to discuss political and security concerns.

 BRICS

BRICS is an acronym for five emerging economies of the world - Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. The term BRIC was coined by Jim O' Neil, the then Chairman of Goldman Sachs in 2001.

BRIC was founded in 2006 in Russia. BRIC turned into BRICS after the inclusion of South Africa in its first meeting in the year 2009. The BRICS leaders summit is convened annually. The 12th Conference of BRICS was concluded in Russia in 2020. It was chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Structure of BRICS

• The structure of BRICS comprises of

• BRICS does not exist in the form of organisation, but it is an annual summit between the supreme leaders of five nations.

• The Chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S.

• BRICS cooperation in the past decade has expanded to included an annual programme of over 100 sectoral meetings.

Objectives of BRICS

The objectives of the BRICS can be summarised below

• The key objectives of BRICS are primarily to cooperate and distribute mutual economic benefits among its members besides non-interference in the internal polices of each nation and mutual equality.

• The BRICS seeks to deepen, broaden and intensify cooperation within the grouping and among the individual countries for more sustainable, equitable and mutually beneficial development.

• BRICS takes into consideration each members growth, development and poverty objectives to ensure relations are built on the respective country's economic strength and to avoid competition where possible.

• BRICS is emerging as a new and promising political-diplomatic entity with diverse objectives, far beyond the original objective of reforming global financial institutions.

Importance of BRICS for India

The importance of BRICS for India are as follows

• India can benefit from collective strength of BRICS by way of consultation and cooperation on economic issues of mutual interests as well as topical global issues, such as international terrorism, climate change, food and energy security, reforms of global governance institutions etc.
• India remains engaged with the other BRICS countries on Its NSG membership.

• The New Development Bank (NDB) will help India to raise and avail resources for their infrastructure and sustainable development projects. The NDB has approved its first set of loans, which included a loan of US $ 250 million in respect of India for Multitranche Financing Facility for Renewable Energy Financing Scheme.

Check Point

1Which organisation was established under Marshall Plan?

2ASEAN stands for what?

3.What is the motto of ASEAN?

4.The 12th Conference of BRICS was concluded in and chaired by

The Rise of Chinese Economy

China's economic surice 1978 has been linked to its rise as a great power. China has been the fastest growing economy since the reforms began there.

China has been growing as an economic power since 1978. It is estimated to overtake US as the world's largest economy by 2040. It has enormous regional influence due to its economic integration into the region. Factors like population, landmass, resources, regional location and political influence adds to its power along with a strong economy.

Economic Model of China

• Under the leadership of Mao in 1949, the economy of the Communist China was based on the Soviet model. At that time China was economically backward and it put an end to its link with the capitalist world. It now relied on its own resources.

• The model was to generate a state-owned heavy industries sector from the capital accumulated from agriculture. Due to the shortage of foreign exchange to buy technology and goods from the world market, China substitute imports by domestic goods.

• This model empowers China to utilise its resources and helped to establish the foundations of an industrial economy. Employment and social welfare was assured to all the citizens. China moved ahead of most developing countries in providing better education and health facilities.

• The economic growth was at a respectable rate but though it was not sufficient to meet the needs of the people. Agriculture sector was unable to generate economic surplus. China was going through similar crises like the USSR i.e. slow pace industrial production and low per capita income

New Economic Policy of China

• Major policy decisions were taken in the 1970's by the Chinese leadership. China ended its political and eccnicnic Isolation wire US in 1972

• Premier Zhou Enlai proposed four modernisations' Le. agriculture, industry, science and technology and military in 1973. Later in 1978, Deng Xiaoping announced the Open Door' policy and economic reforms in China. Open door policy was to generate higher productivity by

• Investments of capital and technology from abroad. Market economy was adopted and their economy was opened step by step.

• Agriculture sector was privatised in 1982 followed by privatisation of industry in 1998. Trade barriers were eliminated in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) where enterprises were set by the foreign investors.

• State plays a dominant role in setting up a market based economy in China.

Impact of New Economic Policy

The impact of New Economic Policy of China is discussed below

The new economic policies helped the Chinese economy to deal with stagnation.

Privatisation of agriculture resulted in rise of agricultural production and rural incomes which helped the rural economy growth at a faster pace.

The Chinese economy, including both industry and agriculture, grew at a faster rate.

The new trading laws and creation of Special Economic Zones attracted foreign players and foreign trade.

China has become an important place for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the world. Now, China has large foreign exchange reserves which allow it to make big investments in other countries. China's accession to the WTO in 2001 also helped its opening to the outside worl

Although the Chinese economy has improved still it did not benefit everyone in China. The rate of unemployme has risen, working conditions and female employment bad. Environmental degradation and corruption has al increased besides these rise in economic inequality between rural and urban residents.

However, at the regional and global level China had beco an economic power. China also has a considerable influence with its trade partners. But still it faces issues with Japan, the US, ASEAN and Russia by economic considerations. China also hopes to resolve its issues w Taiwan by integrating it closely into its economy. China contributed to the stability of the ASEAN economies af the 1997 financial crises. Further, it's outward looking investment and aid policies in Latin America and Afric depicting it as a global player on the side of developing economies.

Nations as Emerging Powers

After the disintegration of Soviet Union, some of the nations emerged as Global power in 21st century. For example, Russia emerged as a strong successor of USSR, India and Israel emerged as powerful and important nations in 21st century and China can be seen as strong emerging economic power since 1978.

Russia

Even before the disintegration of Soviet Union Russia has been its largest part. Russia emerged as the strong successor of USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic), after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1980's and the early 1990's. Russia has emerged as one of the powerful country in the global world as it has vast reserves of nature resources, minerals and gases. In addition, Russia is a nuclear state with a huge stock of sophisticated weapons. It is also a permament member of the UN Security Council, called P-5

Economic Model of Russia

Russia's economy is a mixed and transitional economy of upper-middle income, with vast natural resources, particularly oil and natural gas. It is Europe's fifth-largest economy, the world's eleventh-largest economy by nominal GDP and the world's sixth-largest economy by purchasing power parity.

India

India has emerged as an important global power in the 21st century. The world is experiencing the power and rise of India in a multidimensional way. With the population of 135 crores the economic, cultural, strategic position of the country is very strong.

Economic Model of India

From an economic perspective, targeting the goal of a $ 5 trillion economy by 2024-25, a competitive huge market, an ancient inclusive culture with 200 million people of Indian Diaspora spreading across the globe impart distinct meaning and salience to India as a new centre of power in 21st century.

The military of India is self sufficient with indigenous nuclear technology making it another nuclear power from a strategic perspective. (Projects like Make in India sets another milestone in Indian economy) Therefore, all these changes are making India an important power in the present world.

Israel

Israel has also emerged as one of the most powerful nations in the 21st century in terms of science and technology, defense and intelligence. Israel has reached to the new heights of global political standing by virtue of its indomitable defence prowess, technological innovate.

industrialisation and agricultural development, despite of its location situated in the middle of the burning politics of West Asian countries.

Israel being a small Jewish-Zionist nation is placed in the contemporary global politics in general and the Arab-dominated West Asian politics in particular.

Economic Model of Israel

Israel's economy is a well-developed free-market economy that is technologically advanced. After the United States, it has the world's second-largest number of start-up enterprises. Its top exports include cut diamonds, high-tech equipment and pharmaceuticals. Crude oil, foodstuffs, raw materials and military equipment are among the country's main imports.

Japan

Japan is famous for producing high-technology products. Some of the well-known Japanese brands are Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Suzuki, Honda, Toyota, Mazada, etc. It has progressed very well despite of the destruction faced during the Second World War in Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bomb attacks. In 1964, it became a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In the year 2017, it attained the position of third largest economy in the world. It is the only Asian country which is a part of G-7. It is considered to be the eleventh most populous nation in the world.

Economic Model of Japan

Japan is the second largest contributor to the regular budget of the United Nations that almost contribute around 10%. Since 1951, Japan has a security alliance with USA.

According to Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, people of Japan won't use force as a means of settling international disputes. Japan spends only 1% of its GDP on its military expenditure still it holds the position of seventh largest in the world. Thus, Japan may also become an alternative centre of power.

South Korea

Korea is divided into two major regions i.e. South Korea (Republic of Korea) and North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) at the end of Second World War along the 38th parallel. Due to the Korean War during 1950-53 and the Cold War tensions has further intensified the rivalries between these two sides. Both the Koreas became UN members on 17th September, 1991. In Asia, South Korea emerged as a centre of power. During the phase of 1960's and 1980's, it developed itself into an economic power which is also known as 'Miracle on the Han River'.

In 1996, for all around development, South Korea became a member of OECD.

Economic Model of South Korea

In the year 2017, its economy stood eleventh largest in the world and its military expenditure was tenth largest.

The HDI rank of South Korea was 18 as per the Human Development Report of 2016. Some of the significant factors mainly responsible for high human development include successful land reforms, rural development, extensive resources development and rapid equitable economic growth. Some of the other factors also comprises of export orientation, strong redistribution policies, public infrastructure development, effective institutions and governance. Several international agreements such as between India and South Korea help us to know about th growing commercial and cultural ties.

Check Point 

1. Under whom leadership China was in 1949?

2. In which year China has liberalised its economy

3. Russia's GDP is currently at which position?

4. Which scheme in science and technology is anc milestone of Indian economy?

5. is the principle with which a small Jewish-Zionist nation is placed in contempora global politics.