America vs Russia

Despite the seemingly understanding between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the US is increasingly becoming worried over Russia's ability to take over as the next super power.

Just yesterday, the US govt. imposed new sanctions on a Chinese military unit over the purchase of Russian jets and missiles. These sanctions are with immediate effect. 

Two things can make a country a 21st century super power: the military power, and the economic power

Russia has the military power and China has the economic power. However, the military supercedes the economy when strategy is put in place.

Moscow and Washington had battled cold war for over 40 years as suoer power rivals, from the end of the second world war in 1945 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 leaving the US as the only super power.

Historically, a super power emerges after a victory from war. Prior to the WW2, the UK, the US, Soviet Union and China (including France) to a lesser extent were knwon as world powers. They formed the Allied forces.

The Axis section could boast of Germany, Italy and the Empire of Japan. If the Axis powers had won, Germany or Japan would have become a super power today. But since the Allied forces won, it now fell on those four countries above to become the global police dog.

For Britain, it was more or less a pyrrhic victory as the war had a devastating blow on their economy. China contributed very little to the war. France was decimated by the Nazi invasion, leaving only USSR and the US to clinch the title.

The Soviet Union contributed greatly to the defeat of the Axis powers in Europe through the famous War of Attrition. The US on the other hand was able to end it at the Asian side through a nuclear strike in Japan, after the latter refused to surrender even when Germany and Italy have been defeated.

Both countries were competing fiercely during the cold war. In fact the Soviet was already having an upper hand.

During the Korean war, the Soviet-backed North (which would later become North Korea) was already defeating the US-backed South (later South Korea) before they were divided. Infact at the break up in 1953, the United Nations never recognized the North Korea yet the continued to be a threat to world peace until recently.

... to be continued.



Chike Nnamani is a writer and public affairs analyst.