THE MIDDLE POWERS AND THE GEOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE

The Middle Powers are shaping the emerging geopolitical landscape. The war in Ukraine has shone a spotlight on the activism of the Middle Powers as the major driving force of the reshaping of the international environment. They are a cast of odd bedfellows. South Africa, India, South Korea, Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel, to name but a few, don’t have much in common. Some are democracies, some are autocracies and others populate a grey area in between. These countries have forged their post-cold war identities in an interconnected world in which one’s major trading partners are often not one’s closest allies, and where technological decoupling between the US and China can be more consequential than the ideological divide between them. Some Middle Powers are developing countries with booming populations, others are economic powers struggling with demographic decline. Some earned their Middle Power status thanks to geographic size, others thanks to economic might. Some are constructive and co-operative members of the international community, others can be transactional and suspicious. But they all share one fundamental feature: they are determined to be at the table and not on the menu, since they all have the power and ambition to shape their regions. There is no common ideology among the Middle Powers. Indeed, they often have divergent or competing interests. And the movement is not even a movement. Middle Powers aspire to have the global influence of Washington or Beijing, yet they are well aware of how unlikely that eventuality is. While during the cold war it was the Middle Powers that had to adjust to the whims and plans of the superpowers, today the US and China have to manage a world reshaped by their activism. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the clearest example of our new reality.

LIST OF MIDDLE POWERS

Africa

1. Algeria
2. Angola
3. Egypt
4. Ethiopia
5. Morocco
6. Nigeria
7. South Africa

Americas

1. Argentina
2. Brazil
3. Canada
4. Chile
5. Colombia
6. Mexico
7. Peru

Europe

1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Czech Republic
4. Denmark
5. Finland
6. France
7. Germany
8. Greece
9. Hungary
10. Ireland
11. Italy
12. Netherlands
13. Norway
14. Poland
15. Portugal
16. Romania
17. Russia
18. Spain
19. Sweden
20. Switzerland
21. Ukraine
22. United Kingdom

Asia

1. Bangladesh
2. India
3. Indonesia
4. Iran
5. Iraq
6. Israel
7. Japan
8. Kazakhstan
9. Kuwait
10. Malaysia
11. North Korea
12. Pakistan
13. Philippines
14. Qatar
15. Saudi Arabia
16. South Korea
17. Singapore
18. Taiwan
19. Thailand
20. Turkey
21. United Arab Emirates
22. Vietnam

Oceania

1. Australia
2. New Zealand