Comprehensive National Power

Comprehensive National Power (CNP) (Chinese: 综合国力; pinyin: zōnghé guólì) is a putative measure, important in the contemporary political thought of the People's Republic of China, of the general power of a nation-state. CNP can be calculated numerically by combining various quantitative indices to create a single number held to measure the power of a nation-state. These indices take into account both military factors (known as hard power) and economic and cultural factors (known as soft power). CNP is notable for being an original Chinese political concept with no roots in either contemporary Western political theory, Marxism-Leninism, or pre-20th-century Chinese thinking.

According to Reports on International Politics and Security published in 2003, 2006, and 2009 in the Yellow Book of International Politics by the Social Sciences Center, a government-sponsored Chinese think-tank, the list of top 10 countries with the highest CNP score were as follows:

Rank 2003[1] 2006[2] 2009[3]
1  United States  United States  United States
2  Japan  Japan  Japan
3  China  Russia  Germany
4  Germany  France  Canada
5  United Kingdom  Germany  France
6  France  China  Russia
7  Russia  United Kingdom  China
8  Norway  Canada  United Kingdom
9  Canada  South Korea  India
10  Australia  India  Brazil

Within Chinese political thought, the main goal of the Chinese state is to maximize China's CNP. The inclusion of economic factors and soft power measures within most CNP indices is intended to prevent China from making the mistake of the Soviet Union in overinvesting in the military at the expense of the civilian economy.

A fairly simplistic and effective index was developed by Chin-Lung Chang. It uses critical mass, economic capacity and military capacity. Due to its indicators, it is often repeatable and easy to define, making it comparable to the Human Development Index in understanding and reliability.[4]

A new book titled "Comprehensive National Power- A Model for India", which is a project of United Service Institution of India explains how CNP is calculated and also shows various methods of calculation with various tables, charts, diagrams.[5]

See also

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