Introduction As empires and countries have risen and fallen throughout time there have always been some that topped the international community as an ultimate power This has remained unchanged even today To communicate what the world trend is for power polarity is used Polarity in regards to international politics is where power lies at the international level Unipolarity being that one country dominates in power over others in the world Bipolarity meaning two countries top the world in power and so on depending on how many countries share the most power internationally Three types of power are used to distinguish polarity military economic and soft To determine the overall power status of country s I ve chosen to look at only military and economic power I decided to exclude soft power because I am defining power as the capability to get someone to comply with something they normally would not do Soft power focuses on coming to a compromise with others without coercion through means such as diplomacy culture influence and likability As much as a country may admire one another if war broke out or a disagreement occurred that a country needed to win no matter what I believe military and or economic might would most sway the outcome In regards to the world today I believe a unipolarity exists with the United States dominating the international community in military and economic power but that in 25 years a tripolarity will exist between the United States Russia and China militarily but only a bipolarity in regards to economy between the United States and China Economic Power In regards to economic prowess I believe the United States has shown that it has a greater capacity than all other countries with its largest competition being China When comparing GDPs across countries purchasing power parity PPP is often used PPPs are used in order to compare different countries GDPs by comparing goods and services by a ratio in national currencies instead of trying to convert individual monetary values Over the past five years up to present day the United States has dominated China in GPA based on PPP per capita From 2010 to 2013 China s GPA based on PPP per capita rose from approximately 9 000 to 12 000 while the United States rose from approximately 48 000 to 55 000 World This figure could be skewed though due to the amount of poverty that a good portion of rural China lives in To overcome this GPD as a whole can be looked at In 2014 the United States GDP was approximately 16 2 trillion where as China s was 8 2 trillion International Based on these figures it could be assumed that if money needed to be pushed around or offered as an incentive for countries to do something the United States possesses more capability to have that control Although the United States is far above China economically now in 25 years I believe China will have grown enough to almost be on par and a fierce force able to manipulate the global economy The United States may have greater monetary values now but one thing it continually lacks is a higher economic growth rate than China For the past five years the United States growth rate has varied from 1 6 to 2 53 but China has varied from 7 35 to 10 63 International The rate at which the United States economy is growing pales in comparison to how quickly China is expanding Trends have indicated that China s growth is slowly down but only a few tenths of a percent per year which will over the next 25 years most likely allow China is come close to catching up to the United States According to the U S Department of Agriculture by 2030 China will have more than doubled its GDP to only trailing the United States predicted GDP by 2 6 trillion Smialek Looking ten years past that it seems very likely if the growth continues that the United States will finally be toppled at the world s largest economy Military Power After the devastating effects of WWI and WWII on Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union it was no surprise that the United States became and has remained a military powerhouse The top three military powers in the world to date are the United States China and Russia but there are certain aspects that show the United States as clearly superior As of 2013 the United States military expenditure topped the world charts at 618 7 billion with China and Russia trailing at 171 4 billion and 84 9 billion respectively Frohlich With such a larger expenditure than its competitors the United States is able to put more time and money into research programs to create not only more efficient weapons but also produce more in number One investment that allows the United States to project its power across the world more is its overwhelming amount of aircraft carriers and aircraft built in comparison to other countries The United States has ten active aircraft carriers and about 14 000 aircraft in its arsenal Macias While it could be considered that Russia is a close second with its domination in number of tanks and more nuclear warheads than the United States certain elements make these two insignificant First of all is that in regards to a face off between the United States and Russia tanks are useless unless you can t get them to the enemy Tanks are also slow moving so quick strikes can not be taken which is a lot of what modern warfare is from aircrafts As for nuclear warheads while having more may make people think Russia is more powerful there is little chance a nuclear warhead will be launched in a war Now that there is a range of countries that possess nuclear weapons mutual assured destruction keeps countries in check One country dares not launch a nuclear warhead at another because they know a retaliation of equal or greater magnitude could be coming back at them There would be no strategy in destroying part of a nation if the government knows its own country will be destroyed in the process Where China fits into the military scheme is that is contains the largest standing army in the world at almost three million people in 2013 Armed The United States may be at almost half that but again technology and training are much more important than sheer numbers of men Regardless of how many men China has if they do not possess enough aircraft or ships to transport them they become useless in a conflict across continents While the military power structure is fixed with the United States on top for now and the past few decades I believe within the next 25 years Russia and China