The United States, the Superpower

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that its geography and demography gave the U.S. the initial capacity to invest U.S. capital thus becoming a mighty engine of world finance, gathering increments of power by bolstering old enterprises or by opening new enterprises. The author points out that W.W. II literally forced America to become an internationalist nation; the period after W.W. II marked a transition to a new phase of nationalist feeling incorporating a militarist emphasis in foreign policy and an increasing anxiety about security. The paper states that the use of atomic bombs in Japan to end W.W. II was a watershed event in history and ultimately proved to be the catalyst in propelling the U.S. into the elite club of world superpowers at the time: Today, America is the only superpower in the world.

Table of Content
The Early Years
This Land Is Our Land
National Interest
Economy As A Factor In Superpower Status
Strategy of Containment
Other Ingredients That Made America A Superpower
The Dynamism of American World Power
In Conclusion

From the Paper:

"In any calculus of the world's resources - immediate, reserve and potential - America leads the procession of the nations, with even the Soviet Union following at a distance. America was estimated (in 1950) to have 30 percent of the world's harnessed water power and to produce 42 percent of the world's total electrical power from all sources - about 430 billion kilowatt hours (Western Europe produced 25 percent, the Soviet Union eight percent). It used 60 percent of the world's total petroleum production and 25 percent of its total coal production. Its per-capita use of electrical energy from all sources increased from 455 kilowatt-hours in 1924 to 3,000 kilowatt-hours in 1954, and its per-capita use of total mechanical energy was like that derived from burning eight tons of coal for every person."

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