economic influence!
One way the USA has global influence is through having a strong and very wealthy economy. The wealthier a country is, the more likely a country will want to trade with them. The USA will also use their wealth to give loans to smaller countries and will use this influence to create alliances with smaller countries.
As the country is indebted to the USA they will be likely to take the US’s side and agree with them or support the USA whenever the USA asks them to. This shows how the USA can use its wealth to have an influence over other countries. For example the USA is the world’s strongest economy and has been since 140 years ago.
It is worth $21 trillion dollars per year and the dollar is the world leading currency, and wall street is the most important financial centre in the world with 132 of the top 300 countries in the world. This evidence clearly shows the tremendous influence and wealth the USA has, This also gives it incredible power.
However there is considerable evidence that the USAs economic power and influence may be under threat from the growing economies of Japan but mainly china. China appears to be catching up with the USA. Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong kong are the 3rd, 4th and 5th largest stock exchanges and growing. In terms of GDT (gross domestic product), China has over $14 trillion.
For example China’s economy is growing at least 4 times faster than the USA per year. Therefore, despite the USA having the largest economy, it is clear that China presents a clear threat to America’s dominance and the eco influence it has on the world.
Military influence!
One way the USA has a military influence over other countries is through their membership in North Atlantic treaty organisation (NATO). This is a military alliance of 28 countries that was established by the USA in 1948 in order to protect America’s political and economic interests in Europe and around the world. Nato’s initial aims were to ‘keep the Nazis down, the Russians out and the Americans in western Europe’. Nato is the world’s largest military alliance and the USA is the main player in NATO.
It is the world’s largest funder of Nato in terms of traps, weapons and cash and the US firmly calls the shots and has complete control of NATO. It acts in America’s interests and protects the USA in their role as policeman.The power that NATO has is evidence of global influence that the USA has military power. Recently the US and NATO have been involved in conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Iraque, Afghanistan and have supplied war leads and weapons during the ongoing Middle east conflicts.
However, a challenge to America’s military power comes from countries such as Iran, China, North Korea and russia. North Korea and Iran now have made nuclear weapons which pose a direct threat to American allies, Israel and South Korea. The relationship intentions between America and Russia have never been so strained since the end of the cold war, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
America sees this as a direct threat to its power and has responded by fully supporting Ukraine by providing weapons, tanks, drones and training. This has cost $75 billion dollars. In analysis, this indicates how steroid America took this threat from russia. Also, China and Russia are now cooperating regularly since the creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) This is Russia’s attempt at creating a rival organisation to NATO.
Political influence!
One way the USA is influential is through membership of international organisations such as the UN. The main goal of the United Nations is to ensure global piece. The USA is so powerful that it has one of the top 5 seats in the UN meaning it gets say on the most important decisions, and can stop the whole world from doing something if it uses its veto power.
For example, the USA has used its veto power over 80 times, usually to protect its allies such as israel. This shows clearly countries must consider what the US wants before making a decision to avoid the veto which makes them influential.
However, the USA has also become frustrated with Russia over Syria. The ongoing civil war has led to the loss of thousands of lives while hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Russia’s support for the Syrian government by means of its UN security council veto which means the USA has been unable to gain UN approval for actions recent bombing raids by Russia in cities like Aleppo have further increased tensions.
This shows that veto has not been effective in giving the USA its global power as they don’t have the final say as other 4 members of veto can disagree with the beliefs of America which can limit the extent of influence that the USA has on the political stage.
Overall, it is clear the USA having the world’s largest military and the world’s most powerful political leader gives it a tremendous amount of influence and power over other countries. The US uses aid alliances and the threat of hard power to influence countries around the world.
However there are challenges to the USAs power and influence. China is growing economic power and may soon overtake the USA as the world’s number one economy. China and Russia have said their UN veto against America and countries such as North Korea and Iran have nuclear weapons that threaten US power in the middle east and for east. Overall, the US is a very powerful country but other countries try, and the US is facing real challenges to this power in the areas where the USAs in influential.
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