The solutions organized by the superpower become the dominant global system because they are far more effective, efficient, flexible and sustainable than the solutions organized by other nations and trading blocs.

There's a popular geopolitical parlor game called Who will be the next superpower?

While the game excels at triggering a mind-fogging tsunami of nationalistic emotions, it doesn't shed much light on the really consequential question: What is power?

These are important questions to ponder as, around the world, unsustainable policies from the 20th century are beginning to fail in earnest. What will the future geopolitical landscape look like in their aftermath?

Put another way: what will it take to be a superpower in 2025?

What Is Power?

In geopolitics, the conventional view is that Power is the capacity to coerce others to serve your interests at the detriment of their own.

This is a scale-invariant definition, meaning that it applies equally to the school bully, the drug lord, the dictator, or the Emperor. Each has the power to coerce others to do things that are counter to their own interests to serve the interests of the powerful.

While there is certainly truth in this definition, at the geopolitical scale it leaves much to be desired. General and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was well-positioned to understand the limits of coercive power, limits which he described in this truculent phrase: “Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything.”

The greater power than coercion, it turns out, is the power to align others' interests with one's own, so they willingly submit to your authority as a means of furthering their own interests. To do this effectively and sustainably, power must organize the transnational flow of capital and labor in ways that offer benefits to all participants.

The great superpower of the ancient world, the Roman Empire, showcased this form of inclusive organizational power: though the Legions were available to suppress outright rebellions, Rome's long Golden Era was characterized not by perpetual wars of rebellion but by widespread peace and prosperity for even the far-flung members of the Empire

This is not to gloss over the institutional slavery and oppression that enforced the Ancient Rome's grip, but the point is that free participants accepted the dominance of Rome because it protected their opportunities to better themselves in relative safety, providing they did not undermine the Empire's interests.