IB MYP Individuals and Societies – Superpowers, empires and supra-national alliances Study Guide

This study guide teaches superpowers, empires and supra-national alliances for IB MYP Individuals and Societies. It is aligned to the International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and societies, from 2014, which lists “superpowers, empires, and supra-national alliances and organizations” among the topics explored in the MYP individuals and societies on-screen examinations. The page suits MYP years 4 and 5. There is no SL/HL split in the MYP, so everything here applies to every student.

One point first. MYP has no prescribed content list: schools design their own units. This page covers a topic the IB’s brief names, using standard history, geography and politics; your school may use other case studies. For the course as a whole, see the IB MYP Individuals and Societies course hub and the printable checklist. When you have worked through this guide, use the revision notes and then the practice questions.

What this unit covers

Area	What you must be able to do	Criteria it feeds
Power and superpowers	Define power, superpower, great power and hegemony; use indicators to judge a state’s power	A, B
Empires	Tell formal from informal empire and land from sea empire; explain how empires rise and decline	A, D
Alliances and organisations	Explain why states join, and compare the UN, NATO, EU, ASEAN and AU	A, C
Sources on power	Judge the value and limitations of speeches, treaties, maps and statistics	B, D

The brief gives causality, globalization, culture and sustainability as examples of related concepts, and names key concepts including change, global interactions and systems. This topic is built on causality (why empires rise and fall) and global interactions (how states cooperate and compete). The global context that fits it best is usually orientation in space and time.

Key terms

• Power – the ability of a state to get the outcomes it wants, including by influencing others.
• Hard power – influence through force or payment: armed forces, sanctions, trade deals, aid.
• Soft power – influence through attraction: culture, values, education, media. The term is linked to the political scientist Joseph Nye (around 1990).
• Superpower – a state that can project power in every region of the world, across military, economic, political and cultural fields at once. The word is usually credited to William T. R. Fox, writing in 1944.
• Great power – a state with strong regional or wide influence, but not the global reach of a superpower.
• Hegemony – dominance by one state over others, often accepted rather than imposed.
• Polarity – how power is spread in the world system: unipolar (one dominant power), bipolar (two), multipolar (several).
• Sovereignty – a state’s authority to govern itself.

What makes a superpower?

No single measure decides it. A superpower scores highly on most of these indicators.

Indicator	What to look for
Economic	Large total GDP, major trading power, a widely used currency, big companies with global reach
Military	Large defence budget, nuclear weapons, ability to send forces far from home (navy, overseas bases)
Political	Permanent seat on the UN Security Council, leading role in alliances, influence on other states’ decisions
Cultural	Films, music, language, universities and brands used worldwide (soft power)
Demographic and resources	Large population, land area, energy and mineral resources

Superpowers in the twentieth century and today

During the Cold War the world was bipolar. The United States and the Soviet Union led rival blocs, competed in an arms race and a space race, and backed opposing sides in conflicts worldwide. When the Soviet Union broke up in December 1991, many writers described a unipolar world led by the United States.

Today the picture is debated. China has the world’s second-largest economy and has expanded its trade, lending and navy. Some analysts call it an emerging superpower in a multipolar world where the European Union, India, Russia and groupings such as BRICS also hold weight. Others argue that China’s power is still mainly regional and that the United States keeps advantages in alliances, military reach and soft power. Present both views, with evidence.

Worked example – using indicators

Two fictional states give these figures for the same year.

State	GDP (billion dollars)	Population (million)	Defence spending (billion dollars)
Arvenia	3,000	120	90
Kestria	1,200	20	24

Step 1 – GDP per capita (GDP ÷ population):

Arvenia: 3,000,000,000,000 ÷ 120,000,000 = 25,000 dollars
Kestria: 1,200,000,000,000 ÷ 20,000,000  = 60,000 dollars

Step 2 – defence spending as a percentage of GDP:

Arvenia: 90 ÷ 3,000 × 100 = 3.0%
Kestria: 24 ÷ 1,200 × 100 = 2.0%

Step 3 – interpret. Arvenia has the larger economy and spends more on defence, in total and as a share of GDP, so it has more hard power. Kestria’s people are richer on average. Total size matters most for global reach, but a judgement also needs political and cultural evidence the table does not give.

Empires

An empire is a state that rules other peoples or territories, usually without their consent, from a central power (the metropole).

• Formal empire – direct political control: colonies governed by officials from the metropole.
• Informal empire – control through trade, loans or influence, without official annexation.
• Land (contiguous) empire – expands into neighbouring territory, such as the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous land empire in history.
• Maritime (overseas) empire – controls distant territory by sea, such as the Spanish and British empires. At its height in the early twentieth century, the British Empire covered around a quarter of the world’s land area.

Why empires rise

Look for factors in these groups:

1. Economic – wealth from trade, farming or resources pays for armies and officials.
2. Military and technological – better weapons, ships or organisation, such as the Mongols’ mounted archers or European steam-powered ships.
3. Political – strong leadership and systems to govern distant land, such as roads, laws and tax collection.
4. Ideological – beliefs that justify expansion: religion, a “civilising mission”, national prestige.
5. Opportunity – rivals that are weak or divided.

The Ottoman Empire shows several at once: a strong army, control of trade routes between Europe and Asia, and the capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Why empires decline

The historian Paul Kennedy, in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987), argued that great powers weaken through imperial overstretch: their commitments abroad cost more than their economy can support. Other factors include:

• Internal – economic stagnation, corruption, divided leadership, costly reform.
• External – defeat in war, rival powers, pressure from other states.
• From the governed – nationalist and independence movements.

Decolonisation after 1945 is the main example of the last point: India and Pakistan became independent from Britain in 1947, and dozens of African and Asian colonies followed in the 1950s and 1960s. The Soviet Union shows the mix: a long war in Afghanistan (1979–1989), a stagnant economy, Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms from 1985, the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and nationalist movements in its republics all came before its break-up in 1991.

Worked example – describing change over time

The fictional empire of Valdoria controlled this much territory (million km²):

Year	1600	1700	1800	1850	1900
Territory	0.8	2.0	3.5	3.1	1.4

Percentage change = (new − old) ÷ old × 100.

1600–1700: (2.0 − 0.8) ÷ 0.8 × 100 = +150%
1700–1800: (3.5 − 2.0) ÷ 2.0 × 100 = +75%
1800–1900: (1.4 − 3.5) ÷ 3.5 × 100 = −60%

A strong description uses the numbers and the shape: growth was fastest in the 1600s, peaked around 1800, fell slowly to 1850 (−11.4%) and then fast to 1900 (−54.8%). The data shows when decline happened, not why; for that you need other evidence, such as records of wars or revolts.

Supra-national alliances and organisations

Two ways of working together

• Intergovernmental – states cooperate but keep full sovereignty; decisions usually need every member’s agreement.
• Supranational – states pool some sovereignty, so bodies above national level can make rules that bind members.

Most organisations are intergovernmental. The European Union is the clearest example with strong supranational features.

Why states join – and what it costs

States join for security (collective defence), economic gain (larger markets), influence (a stronger voice as a group) and shared values. The cost is less freedom of action: members follow shared rules, pay contributions and may be drawn into others’ disputes.

Five organisations to know

Organisation	Founded	Main purpose	How it decides
United Nations (UN)	1945 (Charter in force 24 October 1945); 193 member states	Keep international peace and security; promote cooperation and human rights	General Assembly: one state, one vote. Security Council: 15 members; the 5 permanent members (China, France, Russia, UK, US) each hold a veto
NATO	1949 (North Atlantic Treaty, 12 founding members); 32 members	Collective defence	Consensus. Article 5: an armed attack on one member is treated as an attack on all; invoked once, after the 11 September 2001 attacks
European Union (EU)	Created by the Maastricht Treaty (in force 1993); roots in the 1951 coal and steel community and the 1957 Treaty of Rome; 27 members	Single market with free movement of goods, services, capital and people; shared policies	Supranational features: European Commission proposes laws, directly elected European Parliament, Court of Justice, many decisions by majority. The UK left in 2020
ASEAN	1967 (Bangkok Declaration; 5 founders: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand); ten members by 1999, 11 since Timor-Leste joined in October 2025	Regional peace, economic growth, trade	Consultation and consensus; non-interference in members’ internal affairs
African Union (AU)	2002, replacing the Organisation of African Unity (1963); 55 member states; headquarters Addis Ababa	African unity, peace and development	Intergovernmental; its Constitutive Act allows intervention in a member state in grave cases such as genocide; it has suspended members after military coups

A good comparison uses a shared criterion. On sovereignty, EU members give up more than ASEAN members: EU law can override national law, while ASEAN decides by consensus. On effectiveness, the UN Security Council can act quickly when the permanent members agree, but one veto can block action.

Criterion D: evaluating sources on power and empire

This topic produces sources with strong viewpoints: speeches, treaties, propaganda posters, imperial maps and official statistics. Use origin, purpose, value and limitation, and tie each point to the research question. For the full method, see the source-evaluation exam preparation.

Source X – original text written for Marlbridge. An imagined extract from a fictional colonial governor’s annual report to his home government: “The new railway has brought order and trade to the province. Local chiefs now accept our rule, and the people are grateful.”

• Origin and purpose: written by the official in charge, for superiors who judge his success.
• Value: useful for the government’s official view of the railway and for what the governor wanted his superiors to believe.
• Limitation: he has a reason to show success, and he does not record local people’s own views, so it is weak evidence of whether they were “grateful”.

Notice that value and limitation both come from the same fact about origin.

Common errors

• Calling any rich country a superpower. You need global reach across several indicators.
• Writing that NATO is part of the UN, or that the EU and the Council of Europe are one body.
• Calling every organisation “supranational”. Only use it where members pool sovereignty.
• Giving one cause of decline. Show how causes interact, and rank them.
• Describing a data trend without figures, or claiming data explains why it happened.
• Value and limitation points that could fit any source.

Where to go next

• Revision notes and practice questions for this unit.
• UN peacekeeping: see warfare and peacekeeping.
• Criteria in practice, the disciplines of individuals and societies and the assessment revision notes.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and societies, from 2014. The brief lists this topic among the on-screen examination topics and names the concepts, global contexts and criteria used here. Arvenia, Kestria and Valdoria are fictional.