0 a country that has very great political and military power:
Since the disintegration of the USSR, there has been only one superpower - the US
1 any of the few countries considered to be among the most powerful in the world:
2 one of the countries of the world that has the most power and influence:
They nonetheless provided a useful and generally accurate overview of the foreign policy agendas harboured by the superpowers and claimant nations.
Multinational companies have always been regarded as self-interested superpowers that profit by exploiting the resources of developing countries.
In the end, neither the support of the superpowers nor the oil billions could save it.
The ending of the superpower stand-off, however, has aggravated conditions that contribute to ethnic rivalry and tension.
Western superpower desires for insuring a stable status quo also can prevent a potentially "destabilizing" democratic turn.
The return to more ' conventional ' international politics with the demise of superpower competition has not, however, automatically led to rational policy development.
Unfortunately the era of cooperation was doomed as these two historically contemporary superpowers became engrossed in an increasingly lengthy series of campaigns for supremacy.
The flow of economic aid from the two superpowers was highly uneven.