Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy Ross
There isn't a chance the US is in the top 3.
You could make a solid case for Alexander and the Greeks, and maybe the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great so I will make the US a clear top 5. Clearly the US not the greatest empire but as super powers go clear top 5. The fall of the soviet union was like the fall of Hannibal and Carthage to the Romans.
It has been a short run but the US is the clear dominant world power. The question of the US is not capability, but willingness to inflict it's will on others something the US has lacked unlike the resolve of the Romans, Mongols or German's in WWII or even The British Empire.
A superpower has the ability to inflict it's will on non-cooperating states. It is not a question of right or wrong but capability. The USA post WWII clearly has top 3 GOAT capability to inflict it's will on others. In 20 years, that may not be the case but 1945 - 2012 clearly.
The US is well ahead of Assyrian empire (2400 B.C. to 612 B.C.), the German's of WWII, Napoleon of the 1800's, The fallen Soviet Union in capability. Sure you could come up with regional powers like the Aztec Empire or some of the Chinese States, but a great power is a state that is recognized as having the ability to exert its influence on a global scale something all of the top 5 above possessed.