WikipediaExtracts:Hyperpower
Extracted from Wikipedia --
The term hyperpower has been used by political scientists and historians to describe an uncontested superpower, although the use of the concept is inconsistent. French foreign minister Hubert Védrine coined the term in 1999 to describe what he saw as the historically-unparalleled influence and might that were held by the United States at the turn of the century.
The United States became the world's hyperpower at the end of the Second World War, as the Soviet Union was a power of comparable influence, but lagged far behind the United States in economy and wealth. The United States remained the world's hyperpower until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, at which point it became the world's sole superpower. Opinions differ on when China's rise changed the United States' position from an uncontested sole superpower to a contested one. However, most agree that this happened sometime in the late 2000s or early 2010s post-Great Recession.
Currently, the United States is no longer an uncontested superpower, partly due to not dominating in every single domain (i.e. military, culture, economy, technology, diplomatic) in every part of the world. Although it is still the most powerful military and has the largest economy by nominal GDP (although China has surpassed the United States in GDP purchasing power parity, and could surpass the United States nominal GDP in the coming decades), China has made significant gains in cultural influence and technology.
According to the Asia Power Index 2025, both the United States and China are classified as superpowers and the U.S. takes the lead on the military capacity, cultural influence, resilience, defense networks, economic resources, and future resources but lags behind China in the two parameters of economic relationships and diplomatic influence across eight measures in Asia.
