Second Superpower
Encyclopedia
"Second Superpower" is a term used to conceptualize a global civil society
as a world force comparable to or counterbalancing the United States
. The term originates from a 2003 New York Times
article which described world public opinion
as one of two superpower
s.
The term second superpower has also been applied by scholars to the possibility that China
will emerge as second superpower on par with the United States
.
On February 15, 2003
global demonstrations took place against the impending invasion of Iraq
. These involved between six and thirty million people and were listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as including the largest anti-war rally in history. In reaction, New York Times writer Patrick Tyler wrote in a February 17 article that:
during February 2003, adding to the hope among many participants that galvanizing world public opinion could prevent the Iraq War.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
began to use the phrase "two superpowers" in speeches. In March, "The Nation" magazine cover story was titled "The Other Superpower". In it, Jonathan Schell
wrote:
Though worldwide popular opposition failed to prevent the invasion of Iraq, leading some to reject the notion, the phrase is still popular among people in the anti-war
and anti-globalization
movements.
of Harvard Law School
's Berkman Center for Internet and Society posted an essay entitled The Second Superpower Rears Its Beautiful Head. In it, he advocated four ideas: embrace the concept explicitly within the peace movement as an inspirational goal and a counter to the "first superpower" idea promoted by the Bush administration, continue to develop blogging and other means of linking the community globally, find ways to influence first superpower institutions including international institutions and international law, and continue to develop reflective personal consciousness so as to be able to lead from love rather than fear.
This paper received 50,000 downloads in five days. The substance of the piece was debated by a number of authors, including Jonathan Rauch
writing in National Journal
. Many bloggers linked the paper with Joi Ito
's Emergent Democracy
concept and paper.
Some attacked Moore's use of the term to describe primarily the effect of the Internet
. Brian Fitzgerald argued in the Greenpeace
Weblog:
of The Register
. Orlowski accused a small number of webloggers of "Googlewashing", a word Orlowski invented to describe media manipulation
of Google to neuter the political significance of the word. He argued:
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
as a world force comparable to or counterbalancing the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The term originates from a 2003 New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
article which described world public opinion
Public opinion
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....
as one of two superpower
Superpower
A superpower is a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests...
s.
The term second superpower has also been applied by scholars to the possibility that China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
will emerge as second superpower on par with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Invention in response to February 2003 demonstrations
February 15, 2003 anti-war protest
The February 15, 2003 anti-war protest was a coordinated day of protests across the world expressing opposition to the then-imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the war took place....
global demonstrations took place against the impending invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
. These involved between six and thirty million people and were listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as including the largest anti-war rally in history. In reaction, New York Times writer Patrick Tyler wrote in a February 17 article that:
Popularization as a description of popular opinion
The New York Times article was widely circulated in the peace movementPeace movement
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
during February 2003, adding to the hope among many participants that galvanizing world public opinion could prevent the Iraq War.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
began to use the phrase "two superpowers" in speeches. In March, "The Nation" magazine cover story was titled "The Other Superpower". In it, Jonathan Schell
Jonathan Schell
Jonathan Edward Schell is an author and visiting fellow at Yale University, whose work primarily deals with nuclear weapons.-Career:His work has appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, and TomDispatch...
wrote:
Though worldwide popular opposition failed to prevent the invasion of Iraq, leading some to reject the notion, the phrase is still popular among people in the anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
and anti-globalization
Anti-globalization
Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....
movements.
Application to Internet-based activism
On March 31, 2003, Dr. James F. MooreJames F. Moore
James F. Moore studies co-evolution in social and economic systems. His recent work has focused on understanding the "economics of peace."Moore was a Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society from 2000 to 2004...
of Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
's Berkman Center for Internet and Society posted an essay entitled The Second Superpower Rears Its Beautiful Head. In it, he advocated four ideas: embrace the concept explicitly within the peace movement as an inspirational goal and a counter to the "first superpower" idea promoted by the Bush administration, continue to develop blogging and other means of linking the community globally, find ways to influence first superpower institutions including international institutions and international law, and continue to develop reflective personal consciousness so as to be able to lead from love rather than fear.
This paper received 50,000 downloads in five days. The substance of the piece was debated by a number of authors, including Jonathan Rauch
Jonathan Rauch
Jonathan Charles Rauch is an American author, journalist and activist. After graduating from Yale University, Rauch worked at the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, for the National Journal magazine, and later for The Economist magazine and as a freelance writer.Currently a senior writer and...
writing in National Journal
National Journal
National Journal is a nonpartisan American weekly magazine that reports on the current political environment and emerging political and policy trends. National Journal was first published in 1969. Times Mirror owned the magazine from 1986 to 1997, when it was purchased by David G. Bradley...
. Many bloggers linked the paper with Joi Ito
Joi Ito
is a Japanese activist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist and Director of the MIT Media Lab.Ito has received recognition for his role as an entrepreneur focused on Internet and technology companies and has founded, among other companies, PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan. He maintains...
's Emergent Democracy
Emergent democracy
Emergent democracy refers to the rise of political structures and behaviors without central planning and by the action of many individual participants, especially when mediated by the Internet...
concept and paper.
Some attacked Moore's use of the term to describe primarily the effect of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Brian Fitzgerald argued in the Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
Weblog:
"Googlewashing"
Moore's paper was the subject of an attack on the dissemination process and the relationship of the author and his reviewers to Google, by Andrew OrlowskiAndrew Orlowski
Andrew Orlowski is a British columnist for the online IT news and opinion website The Register.-Early career:In 1992, Orlowski started an alternative newspaper in Manchester, England called Badpress. He has also written for Private Eye magazine...
of The Register
The Register
The Register is a British technology news and opinion website. It was founded by John Lettice, Mike Magee and Ross Alderson in 1994 as a newsletter called "Chip Connection", initially as an email service...
. Orlowski accused a small number of webloggers of "Googlewashing", a word Orlowski invented to describe media manipulation
Media manipulation
Media manipulation is an aspect of public relations in which partisans create an image or argument that favours their particular interests. Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies and propaganda techniques, and often involve the suppression of information or points of view by crowding...
of Google to neuter the political significance of the word. He argued:
See also
- Group of TwoGroup of TwoThe Group of Two is a proposed informal special relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Originally initiated by C...
- eGovernmentEGovernmentE-Government is digital interactions between a government and citizens , government and businesses/Commerce , government and employees , and also between government and governments /agencies...
- Internet activismInternet activismInternet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience...
- Peace movementPeace movementA peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
- Potential superpowersPotential superpowersA potential superpower is a state or a political and economic entity that is speculated to be, or to be in the process of becoming, a superpower at some point in the 21st century. Previously, it was considered by many sources that only the United States fulfilled the criteria to be considered a...
External links
- New York Times: "A New Power in the Streets"
- Greenpeace: "The Second Superpower"
- James Moore's "The Second Superpower Rears Its Beautiful Head"
- Joi Ito's "Emergent Democracy"
- Andrew Orlowski's "Anti-war slogan coined, repurposed and Googlewashed… in 42 days"
- Demosphere Project — The wiki & global project to develop a community based e-democracy framework using open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
and interactive software. (Wikinews article) - Greenpeace Weblog: "If you tolerate this"
- Kevin Marks' rebuttal to Orlowski
- Paul Boutin's The Second Stuporpower rebuttal to bloggers
- Joan HintonJoan HintonJoan Hinton was a nuclear physicist and one of the few women who worked for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. She lived in the People's Republic of China after 1949, where she and her husband Erwin Engst participated in China’s efforts at developing a socialist economy, working extensively in...
: The Second Superpower (Beijing International Peace Vigil) - Professor Geoffrey Nunberg's New York Times feature, As Google Goes, So Goes the Nation, reprinted in Going Nucular (Public Affairs, 2004)
- Pierre Lazuly's "Telling Google What To Think, Le Monde Diplomatique