Understanding International Relations and American Foreign Policy

Comparative Indicators of National Power, 2001

a resource for student reference prepared by

Gordon L. Bowen, Ph.D.
Professor,
Political Science and International Relations disciplines
Mary Baldwin College
Staunton, VA USA 24401

with research assistance from Qiu Li (class of 2003)

email: gbowen@mbc.edu

The charts below document nine objective indicators that pertain to the relative potential power of eighteen world states.  Overall, these charts tend to support the characterization of the distribution of power in the contemporary world as a Unipolar System, in which the U.S.A. possesses the power potential to be the predominant actor. The charts depict:

The exact figures from which the charts were drawn are available from the sources listed and in most cases linked below each chart.

Key to the charts: In these charts PRC means China; JA = Japan; FRG = Germany; FR = France; UK = the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; RU = Russia; IN = India; PAK = Pakistan; IRI = the Islamic Republic of Iran; IQ = Iraq; MX = Mexico; TK = Turkey; INA = Indonesia; NK = North Korea; SK = South Korea; BR = Brazil; and AR = Argentina.

source: CIA Factbook of the Countries of the World, 2002.  Available: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

 

source: United Nations, "Statistics Division: Indicators on income and economic activity." 

Available: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/social/inc-eco.htm

 

source: CIA Factbook of the Countries of the World, 2002.  

Available: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

 

 

source: CIA Factbook of the Countries of the World, 2002.  

Available: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

 


 


source: CIA Factbook of the Countries of the World, 2002.  

Available: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

source: CIA Factbook of the Countries of the World, 2002.  

Available: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

 


source : US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency: World Military Expenditures and Arms Transactions (1998).



 
Source: International Monetary Fund, "IMF Executive Directors and Voting Power. November 05, 2002."  

Available: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/eds.htm

 

source: The United Nations (circa 1998)
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