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Exactly. Force projection is one of the main qualifiers for what makes a superpower. China is a great power, for sure, but it isn’t a superpower.

• sangnoir 5y ago
  > Force projection is one of the main qualifiers for what makes a superpower This sounds like a retcon to me: the USSR was unquestionably a superpower, but had limited force projection (euphemism for carrier groups).
  • edgyquant 5y ago
    The USSR had global force projection, or close to it, just due to its geography.
  • soneil 5y ago
    This is more what I was going for - not retcon exactly, but that our definition of what a superpower is, changes more often than our list of who the members are. I'd always heard it described as essentially force projection - the ability to fight a war on the other side of the planet - but this is probably just a snapshot in time too. Does Russia fit that bill? did it ever? I think that's where we get caught up in trying to nail down a definition while it keeps changing around us. The Cold War certainly reached the other side of the planet. They certainly had a sphere of influence. But I think it seems very obvious that between England and France earning the title, America and Russia earning the title, and now China - the definition has changed each time. So we're trying to argue semantics with a definition we're not clear on - no wonder we get fuzzy results.