You were speaking of military capacity, but using the term “superpower”, implies much much more.
Thank you for your service.
Your analysis of Russia, however, I find very faulty and not supported by the facts.
The Oxford dictionary defines superpower as:
A very powerful and influential nation (used especially with reference to the US and the Soviet Union while these are perceived as the two most powerful nations in the world).
For the purposes of the term influence, I see it as two of them. China can fall into that category along with India with it’s population and nuclear capacity. But influence doesn’t have to be world wide, so a lot of countries with some type of power can come close.
Our world is getting closer together when it comes to capacity as many smaller countries, like South Korea, now have nuclear capacity thanks chiefly to the US, Russia, and China. Are they a superpower. Not yet. And they can’t even feed themselves yet. But from every little acorn a mighty oak grows. Time will tell how much influence they have on Japan and us in the Pacific.
rwood