The Return of Authoritarian Great Powers Chapter 8Essay by Alberto Arellano 11/07/2011

The author states that there are mainly two challenges, the first one and not really a big thread is radical Islam, Is does not represent a big thread since is not a state rising against other countries and the military power still insignificant compared to the USA and Europe.The second biggest challenge is the authoritarian regimes of Russia and China. The author describes how japan and Germany weren’t able to dominate in WWII well he says that Germany failed because its armed forces were meagerly supplied for the task. Now Russia has the resources to improve his military power in fact recently they have invest over 30 million dollars in improving their military weaponry but still a insignificant amount of money compares to the USA investment in military power. Now China doesn’t have a great military force but since they are not a democratic state they can grow and buy military weaponry easier than any other country. Now another thing that the author pointed out is how Germany and Japan’s geographic area as well the number of population affected greatly the outcome of the war. Now China and Russia Geographically speaking have a great advantage, Russia is a huge land of ice and China has a huge Desert plus the population represents a thread if we come to talk of war soldiers in service. China has a way bigger population than the USA. However, aging is a real problem in china thus in the future there is not going to be a strength is their society because of the lack of youth. The USA seems to be for the moment the dominant defender of democracy with a GDP greater than China and Russia and even though China is acquiring an improving its economy they still by 2020 according to the author will have over the 1/3 of USA economy. However to calculate power by GDP is not accurate, examples like Germany and especially Japan before WWII are testimonies about it. It is said that if China doesn’t democratize as Russia as well the author says it will be critical that India remain so, both because of its vital role in balancing China and because of the model that it represents for other developing countries.