By now, you’re familiar with the gameplay and educational value of World Order, and its rich background in International Relations. But let’s dive deeper: What truly makes a country a great power?
History is the realm of the infinite and World Order aspires to show how and why, over the centuries, the right combination of strategy and luck have changed the course of humankind. Indeed, over the times, hundreds of small powers have risen to prominence and turned into great powers, empires, civilizational states, eventually transforming the course of society. From the ancient city-states of Athens and Sparta to the communities-turned-empires of the Mongols, Macedonians, Romans, and British, history demonstrates that size and initial power are not the only determinants of greatness.
Understanding how small entities rose to greatness offers lessons that are still relevant today, especially during this era of great power competition. The rise-and-fall stories of these past powers have been studied by nearly every major nation that came after them, including the United States, Russia, European Union and China—despite their many cultural differences, they share a fascination with the history of superpowers. World Order will delve into the mechanics of power-building and maintaining dominance, aiming to educate players on these dynamics in an engaging way.
But what makes a country a great power, or a superpower? That’s one of the core questions of the game. Well, history shows that hegemony is a matter of strategic vision, natural resources, cultural appeal, diplomatic skills, with other factors playing a less significant role.
The presence of strategic leadership helps explain many rises to greatness of small powers, just like its absence or decline helps explain many civilizational or hegemonic falldowns. Visionary leaders with exceptional military and political acumen have often been at the helm of these transformations. Take Athens, for instance. Under leaders like Pericles, Athens flourished during the 5th century BCE, becoming a beacon of democracy, philosophy, and the arts, with its soft power used to culturally hegemonize the Greek world. Similarly, the United States expanded fast throughout the 19th century thanks to the strategic acumen of its founding fathers, against the backdrop of investments in diplomacy and industrial base.
Another crucial element is military innovation and strategy. The Mongols, under Genghis Khan, revolutionized warfare with their highly mobile cavalry units and psychological tactics. Their ability to adapt and integrate conquered peoples into their military structure allowed them to build the largest contiguous empire in history. Likewise, the Soviet Union rose to greatness during the Cold War by employing ground-breaking tactics of hybrid warfare such as entryism and disinformation, which were revolutionary at the time, but also by weaponising its mammoth agri-food production and its strategic natural resources.
Economic strength and resource management also play significant roles. Rome’s transformation from a small city-state to a mighty empire was significantly bolstered by its robust economic infrastructure and strategic use of resources. Rome’s road networks, for instance, not only facilitated trade but also allowed for rapid military mobilization. The Romans’ ability to assimilate and utilize the best practices of the cultures they conquered further solidified their economic and military might. The Romans taught a lot of things to their modern-day emulators, as shown by the United States focusing on internal infrastructure development in early 1800s before adventuring abroad from the mid-century onwards. They also taught about the importance of seizing the day, that is, to be smart enough to challenge the existent hegemon only when its time is over – Rome’s empire was truly born out of the victory over Carthage, just like America’s was born out of the intervention in the European civil wars.
Furthermore, the cultural and ideological appeal has often propelled small powers to greatness. Athens’ promotion of democratic principles and cultural achievements made it an intellectual and cultural hub of the ancient world. The spread of Hellenistic culture by the Macedonians under Alexander the Great helped unify a vast empire under a shared cultural and intellectual framework, which had lasting impacts on subsequent civilizations. In other words: soft power. The Western powers, and the British Empire before them, managed to build its world hegemony in the second postwar by drawing from those successful experiences of long-lasting orders, with the US using Hollywood to export the American dream and the EU leveraging on powerful NGOs to export the liberal Western values.
As the past is the key to understand the present, so the present is the key to predict the future. Size and initial power keep being irrelevant – countries like Singapore, a geographic dwarf and an economic giant, show this truth. Strategic leadership can make a difference and turn even resource-scarce and geographically unlucky countries into great powers – the UAE is the self-proving evidence of the evergreen importance played by the culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. Soft power can sometimes do much more than hard power – modern-day South Korea, which, besides the building of a highly competitive native defense industry, invested heavily in development cooperation, culture centers and, more importantly, in the exportation of South Korean culture through music and cinema, paving the way for the so-called Korean wave.
Some players only have soft power instruments, others have only hard-power means, but, historically, only those with the perfect combination between soft power and hard power managed to shape the world order, making it in their own image and likeness. Only a few have managed to do this: the Romans, Napoleon’s French, the 19th century’s British Empire, and the United States from the second postwar until nowadays.
World Order aims to show players how real-life international politics and greatness-building work through an engaging learning by playing format. By having all the instruments that can turn a country into a superpower, such as diplomacy, food, money, natural resources, military and a set of reality-adherent special abilities, against the backdrop of the possibility to forge alliances and resort to unconventional means, players will have the chance to have fun and to learn at the same time how superpowers can arise – and fall.
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