Strong Military Power

Power is defined as the ability to do or act; strength; authority; control; or person having authority (Collins Gem-English Dictionary 1995). A nation or political entity wanting to have the power to influence the course of world events would require three important criteria which are, a strong economy, military, and a good educational system.

A strong economy is one of the most important criteria in making a country powerful because it provides the country with the ability to buy resources other countries cannot buy. For example they are able to buy new military weapons, and cutting edge technology. A strong economy has the ability to create new and highly sophisticated technology that no one else has because they have vast resources.
When a country with a strong military is having diplomatic relations with a smaller country with a lesser military they have more power at the negotiation table so they are more likely to win in negotiations. If negotiations fail they are able to physically control other countries, and are always protected from other hostile countries. A good example of military might is the United States. The four U.S. armed services, the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, and the Marines have a combined force of about 1.4 million active-duty personnel. The U.S Army with 480,000 active-duty soldiers and 200,000 reservists is one of the largest in the world. The United States spends several hundred billion dollars a year on defense spending, six times more than Russia, its nearest rival in military spending ( http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/guides/?article=usmilitarymain). A current example on how their military made them powerful is when they chose to invade Iraq. The U.S. government disagreed with the ideals of Saddam Hussein the leader of the Iraqi government. The U.S. military invaded the country and took control of the country and changed the leader and put someone who demonstrated the ideals and values the U.S government held. This makes them powerful because they show that they have the ability to overthrow a government they do not
It makes citizens smarter, creates more jobs for people who are educated in that specific area. It also helps to develop a strong economy, for example technological advances because there are smarter people to develop them. Highly skilled people have become a global commodity because every country wants a skilled worker in their country. A strong education increases a country’s global standing. An example of a strong educational system is China because in the past twenty years they have developed the most elite high schools with world-class standards in math and science, and have begun to teach English as a second language form third grade on, and have almost eliminated illiteracy among it its 1.3 billion citizens. China has a daring long-term vision for investing in education, to raise its people out of poverty and prepare them for the global economy (http://www.asiasociety.org/pressroom/china_education.html). The strengths of China’s system include an intensive focus on math and science, an internationally oriented curriculum in high schools, a logical teacher development process, China has a very strong cultural commitment to education and its students are willing to study long hours. This has made China powerful because it gives them the ability to make world class products and to distribute them