The CINC (discussed last time) has some flaws stemming from its methodology. However, it does only measure the hardest of hard power: resources, energy, population, military. It completely ignores economic power, to say nothing of "softer" political and cultural power. In an effort to include this, Chinese scholars developed a new method of power quantification. Called "Comprehensive National Power (CNP), this includes not only hard power considerations like military and industrial power, but also economic and social factors, such as quality of life. The model is actually extremely complex (and the current weight of the various elements is unavailable on the internet as far as I can tell) but I'll list the various bits that go into the calculation (this is quoted from a Federation of American Scientists article):
- Natural Resources
Man Power Resources: total population; life expectancy; the proportion of the economically active population in the total population; the number of university students per 10,000 people
Land Resources: the area of national territory; the area of cultivatable territory; the area in forest
Mineral Resources (reserves): iron; copper; bauxite
Energy Resources (reserves): coal; crude oil; natural gases; water energy
- Economic Activities Capability
Actual Economic Strength (total): gross domestic product (GDP); industry production capability (electric energy production, steel output, cement output, logs output); food supply capability (total grain output, degree of self-sufficiency in grain); energy supply capability ( volume of energy production, volume of energy consumption, crude oil processing capability); total cotton output
Actual Economic Strength (per person): GDP per person; industry production capability (electric energy production, steel output, cement output, logs output); food supply capability (total grain output, average calories per person); energy supply capability (volume of energy consumption)
Production Efficiency: social labor production rate; industry labor production rate, agriculture labor production rate
Material Consumption Level: volume of energy consumption based on GDP calculations
Structure: the proportion of the tertiary industry in the GDP
- Foreign Economic Activities Capability
Total import and export trade; total import trade, total export trade
Total international reserves; international reserves (not including gold); gold reserves
Science and Technology Capability
Proportion of research and development in the GDP; number of scientists and engineers; the number of scientists and engineers per 1,000 people; proportion of machinery and transportation equipment exports in total exports; proportion of high-technology intensive exports in total exports
- Social Development Level
Education Level: education expenditures per person; proportion of people studying in higher education; proportion of people studying in secondary school education
Cultural Level: adult literacy rate; number of people per one thousand who get a daily newspaper
Health Care Level: health care expenditures per person; number of people doctors are responsible for; number of people nurses are responsible for
Communications: number of people who have a telephone per 100 people
Urbanization: Proportion of the urban population in the total population
- Military Capability
Number of military personnel; military expenditures; weapons exports; nuclear weapons (the number of nuclear launchers; the number of nuclear warheads)
Government Regulation and Control Capability
Proportion of final government consumption expenditures in the GDP; proportion of central government expenditures in the GDP; investigation through interviews asking nine questions
- Foreign Affairs Capability
Uses ten factors in a "nerve network model" to carry out a broad assessment.
This gives a more well rounded national comparison. This being a Chinese methodology, the rankings are published in chinese journals (if even there) so the numbers aren't easy to get, but Wikipedia has the top 10 power from their 2006 rankings, which is useful to compare to the 2007 CINC numbers we saw earlier:
1. US: 90.62
2. UK: 65.04
3. Russia: 63.03
4. France: 62.00
5. Germany: 61.93
6. China 59.10
Though some names are familiar, the list is pretty different. Right away, we can see a huge difference with the lack of the big developing nations (China and India) which the CINC ranks high because of population, but CNP lowers because, I would assume, the lack of human development across the board. A billion poor people seem to bring down your CNP scores. France's presence is also interesting, especially that it is higher than Germany, something I don't think many people would say is correct. Is it the presence of nuclear weapons that makes France (and the UK) seem so powerful? England is a powerful nation, but in the modern world, I don't see them as more powerful, really, than Germany or Japan (number 7 on this list.)
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