The Paradox of a Super Power

Before 1991 we use to live in a bipolar world. There were two Super States, i.e. United States and Soviet Union. The world was divided into two camps, i.e. The Communist World and The Capitalist World. Though there were some Non-Aligned countries too but even they were not that neutral because the balance is always lopsided towards one camp or another. Since the demise of Soviet Russia there is only one Super State left, i.e. United States. I call it a Super State because it dominates the world economically, industrially and militarily.

Now we live in an age of democracy and Nation-States. The essence of democracy lies in accountability, i.e. each Nation-State is responsible for its actions to its people or the electorate. If the government performs well, in accordance with the aspirations of its electorate, it can be elected again and again, if not, it can be overthown in the next election.

This system of checks and balances, where the electorate keeps a check on the powers of the government, works well for ordinary Nation-States. But a Super-State is somewhat different from other Nation-States vis-à-vis its authority and sphere of influence extends beyond its borders. Now when the Super-State governs not only itself but also, in practice, many other nations too, we come up with a paradox. The authority of the Super-State extends to many nations while it is responsible only to its own citizens or electorate.

When there is a divergence between National interests and International interests, National interests will prevail, because the only motivation of politicians is to get into office and then to stay in office as long as they can. This contradiction became glaringly clear when George Bush was elected for a second term. The overwhelming majority of the International community considers him to be a war-monger and yet he was elected again by the conservative majority of United States.

The solution to this problem, in my opinion, would be to stengthen the United Nations. If there has to be any military engagement in future it must have the sanction of United Nations General Assembly with a two-thirds majority.