hyperpower
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.3|Countries with military bases and facilities of the United States The term hyperpower has been used by political scientists and historians to describe an uncontested superpower, although the use of the concept is inconsistent. French foreign minister Hubert Védrine coined the term in 1999 to describe what he saw as the historically-unparalleled influence and might that were held by the United States at the turn of the century.
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- History
- See also
- References
thumb|upright=1.3|Countries with military bases and facilities of the United States The term hyperpower has been used by political scientists and historians to describe an uncontested superpower, although the use of the concept is inconsistent. French foreign minister Hubert Védrine coined the term in 1999 to describe what he saw as the historically-unparalleled influence and might that were held by the United States at the turn of the century.
The United States became the world's hyperpower at the end of the Second World War, as the Soviet Union was a power of comparable influence, but lagged far behind the United States in economy and wealth. The United States remained the world's hyperpower until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, at which point it became the world's sole superpower. Opinions differ on when China's rise changed the United States' position from an uncontested sole superpower to a contested one. However, most agree that this happened sometime in the late 2000s or early 2010s post-Great Recession.