Power lesson: ‘Master States’ tend to arise on the back of geopolitical upheavals
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"—Thucydides. Nothing describes the evolution of the Westphalian system of ‘nation states’ that humanity has adopted better than Thucydides’ pithy observation in his Melian Dialogue.
This system is governed not by rules or by any manner of a ‘global rules-based order,’ but by an oligarchy of ‘Master States’ that, by dint of their dominance of military and economic affairs, create and impose rules as they deem fit in their own interests. While military strength is important, the entry ticket to this elite club of ‘Master Nations’ is governed by economic influence.
This means that less developed countries face an unequal global economic system where the rules are stacked against them and in favour of a few powerful states that shape it to their own advantage. But every once in a while, geopolitical chaos roils this oligarchy and offers other countries a ladder to climb out of their pit of economic weakness and join the top ranks.
The fundamental problem that a poor country faces is a lack of resources (capital, raw material, technology and others) that can be used for production, coupled with weak access to markets where these goods can be sold freely to generate surpluses. The old Master States of Europe, as founding members of an oligarchy, solved their resource and market problem through geopolitical chaos.
They led a wave of pillage, plunder and conquest in Asia, Africa and the ‘new world’ to generate surpluses that enriched and empowered them. The British fine-tuned this formula, with their colonies serving as sources of cheap raw material and
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