As this new millennium begins, the old strictures of international relations remain quite intact. Throughout much of the last three thousand years the world has been dominated for the most part by successive sole world superpowers. They previously were not known as superpowers, but they essentially served the same function. Each of these superpowers left substantial contributions to successor superpowers, and the role of world dominator passed from ruler to ruler and generation to generation.
The earliest example of a superpower is the civilization of ancient Egypt which warred and conquered until it occupied all of northern Africa and many of the Mediterranean and Aegean islands including much of Greece. When Egyptian power waned, Greece gained prominence. Under the leadership of Alexander the Great and his allies and successors, Greek city-states controlled the most viable trade routes and deployed armies to increase their conquests in places as distant as India and western Africa. As Greek domination gradually deteriorated, the Roman Empire emerged. At its height, Rome ruled the largest amount of territory ever to be controlled by a single entity at that time. Its legions occupied territory that is now the Middle East and a good bit of the Far East. Roman rule was not always benevolent, but it remained the most powerful empire for at least five hundred years. After invaders gradually tore the Empire apart, the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire) was the most influential participant in diplomatic affairs. When it succumbed to Islamic forces, the Arabic Caliphates assumed the de facto role of dictators of diplomacy. Their influence was later superseded by the Ottoman Turks. By the time of the Renaissance in Europe, Turkic authority was made rather subordinate to emerging Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and British attempts towards empire-building. A sort of requisite multilateralism persisted until the late 18th and early 19th centuries when Britain emerged as the strongest of the European empires. At its height of power during the late nineteenth century, Britain controlled 40% of the world land surface. It was only after the first world war that the US actually attained its reputation as an important player in world politics.
The US held that importance throughout the twentieth century. Only when its policies directly clashed with Soviet Russian policies in the contest of wills we now know as the Cold War did the term "superpower" enter the lexicography.
US foreign policy goals after the Cold War are much disputed. Some policy makers believe US diplomacy should focus on economic issues. Other policy makers advocate diligent activism to end strife in strategically vulnerable regions. Unlike the "economy first" analysts, these adherents perceive the world as a chaotic place after the rapid succession of bipolarity and multi-polarity. The fledgling democracies that emerged as the result of capitalism's triumph over Soviet communism are gaining a solid core of guiding principles, but some of these states lack that singular element essential to sustain democracy: stable government.
