Closer Than Ever

Tell me a country which is powerful and I will show you the role of hard power in it being the same. If you look at all the great nations or empires of the past you will see a common thread:  a great military.  No nation can call itself great without an efficient military and the most predominant example is the US but today it’s not about how many warheads, tanks or army do a nation has but about how effectively can a country use it. Thus, the hegemony of US is challenged by many evolving military powers and one of them is china, who claims to narrow the gap and came comparatively “closer than ever” to US.

The United States has been a world power since the late 19th century. World War I and II put a definite stamp on it whereas china having an advanced and well equipped military, growing on a higher pace and being of great concern to the US.

US reigns supreme in terms of air power by having nearly 14,000 active military aircraft, compared to under 3,000 in China. In every area of military aircraft, it can be noted that the United States is vastly superior in number, and it could also be asserted that it enjoys a clear technological advantage in this department as well.

Both the United States and China benefit from a huge amount of land-based military equipment, and it would be reasonable to assert that the two nations are extremely evenly matched in this department by China and US having nearly 9,105 and 8,800 active vehicles respectively.

The United States is traditionally known as one of the world’s great naval powers in history, but China has been investing very heavily in this department and it could be argued that it has superior naval strength to the United States.

Owing to the mutually assured destruction policy which was implemented during the Cold War, the United States remains the world’s greatest nuclear power in terms of total warheads with just under 5,000 active warheads. It is worth noting that there are significant fluctuations in the estimation of the United States’ nuclear capabilities. By contrast, China’s nuclear weapons stock is not so well documented, but it is generally presumed to have in the region of 250 nuclear weapons. After looking at some of the data of both the nations, we need to look at what pace the nations are developing and how smartly are they handling issues.

Thus, the most trending issue between US and China is the South-china Sea where both the nations claim its sovereignty as US tried crossing the Chinese’s sea border and navigating it and thus was warned by china over incursions in the sea which is of national-security interest to the Chinese. China may be decades behind the US in terms of military technology, however it’s nor weaker than the US in South China Sea, neither diplomatically weak as it’s a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and its relations with Russia are at peak. Thus, China will not back down in South China Sea and it is up to the U.S. to choose whether it accepts Beijing’s dominance in Asia-Pacific and terminate security agreements with its Asian allies or risk triggering a full-blown World War 3 with unimaginable consequences.

                                  So, basically “it’s not having the largest hard power but of having the smartest one” and whether China would win supremacy in the south-china sea despite not being the largest one according to the statistics and to what extent can it be a matter of concern to the US?

                                                                                       Shweta Pandey

                                                                                        20153049