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Potential superpower

A potential superpower is a sovereign state or other polity that is speculated to be or have the potential to become a superpower, a sovereign state or supranational union that holds a dominant position characterized by the ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale through economic, military, technological, political, and/or cultural means.[1][2][3]

Currently, only the United States fulfills the criteria to be considered a superpower.[4] At present only China,[5][6] the European Union,[7] India,[8][9] and Russia[10] have consistently been academically discussed as having the potential to attain superpower status.

Former candidates

Japan

In the 1980s, some political and economic analysts predicted that Japan would eventually accede to superpower status, due to its large population, large gross domestic product and high economic growth at that time. Japan was expected to eventually surpass the economy of the United States.[69][70][71] However this prediction failed to materialise following a stock market crash and the resulting Lost Decades, where Japan has suffered a flat to negative economic outlook,[72] while its population has been aging since the late 1980s before suffering real decline in total population starting in 2011.[12]

Centre for Rising Powers, University of Cambridge

from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives

China on the World Stage

by The Times

Blast off: India hopes Mars rocket will enhance its superpower status

by Harvard Business Review

China and India: The Power of Two

by The Atlantic

The End of Pax Americana: How Western Decline Became Inevitable

Why The U.S. Remains The World's Unchallenged Superpower