A thought, and question, on world superpowers

[jefnvk]

If nothing else, being out of college for the summer is giving me a LOT of time to ponder.  My latest is on superpowers.

1) The modern world has always had a superpower.  From the Romans, to the Byzantines, to the Muslims, to the Mongols, the Ottomans, to the British and French, to the Americans and Russians.  There has been at least one superpower almost always since the first century.

2) These superpowers are ever changing.  World events can radically shift the superpowers in a matter of years.  It is not impossible to topple a superpower, either by military or economical force.

3) Superpowers become superpowers by having few, if any rivals.  Whether by military conquest by the superpowers, or by rivals destroying each other.  This can be purposely done, as in the first example, or a third country can be thrown into superpower status as in the second example, simply by being the only one available to fill the void.

So my questions are, can the world survive without a superpower?  Will it be possible to have a world without at least one country effectively policing the world, or at least large parts of it?  And if we ever got to the point of no superpowers, could we remain there without someone trying to fill the position?

[The Rabbi]

You need to go back to school.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s there was no one superpower.  England, France, Germany, and Russia all vied for the title.
Under the Romans, they faced the Parthians and the Carthaginians for a lot of their history.
The US has been the sole superpower for all of 15 years.  Prior to that things were divided up between us and the USSR.
Typically there is a balance of power.  Where there is one superpower, like the Persians, other states band together to off-set that power, like the Greek city states did.
This is why you see France acting like it does in the international sphere.  They are trying to form alliances to counter balance the US's awesome power.

[Iain]

There has been at least one superpower almost always since the first century.

[jefnvk]

Yep, what Ian said.  I realize that there have been periods of time that there hasn't been a superpower, and some that there were multiple.  But there aren't spans of centuries without a superpower, which is what my question is getting at.  It seems whenever there is a void, it doesn't take too long to fill it.

[Moondoggie]

The next one will be China.

The US will dribble off into social/economic/military decline much after the model of the UK.