AFRICA

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• South Africa has roughly half the world’s known gold reserves and 85 percent of its platinum. It has the world's largest reserves of chromium and manganese.
• Zambia is the world's largest producer of copper.
• Zaire exports cobalt, diamonds, and copper for almost 80 percent of its export earnings.

Minus

In much of West and Central Africa, the events of the next 50 years are going to be played out from a starting point of scarce basic resources, serious environmental degradation, overpopulation, disease, unprovoked crime, refugee migrations, and criminal anarchy.

CHINA

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• China has a fast growing economy and the fourth largest economy in the world. It will overtake Germany, Japan, and the United States if current trends continue. By 2020, China's GNP will be 40 percent larger than that of the United States.
• China has vast territory with a comprehensive resource base.
• China has a long history of political, cultural, and economic integration.
• China has the world's largest population.
• China has an "open door" trade policy, allowing foreign investment aimed at Chinese domestic markets.
• China provides the U.S. with 20-25 percent of its textiles and apparel worth more than $7 billion a year. Another $2 billion of shipments arrive in the U.S. illegally, having been routed through a worldwide network of dealers and re-labeled in order to beat U.S. trade quotas.

Minus

• China's oil consumption jumped 11 percent in 1993, turning the world's sixth-biggest oil producer into an oil importer.
• China's economy will remain largely agrarian well into the 21st century.
• The need to feed, clothe, and house huge populations will constrain China's ability to modernize.
• China needs social and political reform before free enterprise can flourish.
• Vast interior regions are increasingly impoverished - a source of potential unrest and political instability.

JAPAN

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• The average annual income per household was $48,000 in 1994, the highest of all the major core countries.
• In 1995, Japanese banks were six of the 15 largest companies in the world, by market value, and 13 of the top 100.
• Japan has the second largest national economy in the world.
• Japan has competitive advantages in a wide range of industrial and financial activities that serve global markets.
• Japan is the world's major creditor.
• A system of informal alliances between politics, business, and bureaucracy equips Japan to cope with a globalized world economy.

Minus

• Japan is the number one importer of basic raw materials (petroleum, iron ore, copper ore, etc.) and agricultural goods -- although, Japan may soon be able to reduce its total fuel oil consumption by using ceramics to produce parts for light-weight engines.
• Japan is geographically isolated from its major industrial markets and trading partners.
• Japan has serious labor shortage due to aging population, declining birth rate, and unwillingness to allow large-scale immigration.

WESTERN EUROPE

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• The European Union is an economic and political alliance of 15 countries with a total population of 362 million and an overall economy of $7.2 trillion. If it achieves full political union, its size will enable it to outvote the United States in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
• Germany alone has an economy that provides each household with an average yearly income of $43,418 U.S. dollars compared to $39,020 in the United States.
• There is a Post-World War II economic renaissance.
• The former satellite states of the Soviet Union provide nearby labor markets and resources.
• Many of the nations have stable internal political structures and strong global, financial, and industrial institutions.

Minus

• Germany is bearing the costs of reunification and restructuring of both the economy and the social fabric of the former East Germany.
• There is a deep reluctance by many Germans since World War II to translate national economic success into international political influence.

RUSSIA

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• Russia is the world’s largest nation by land area, with major reserves of important raw materials.
• With a population of 149 million in 1995, the Russian economy has an ample labor force and a domestic market large enough to form the basis of a formidable economy.
• Russia is the hearth of the former nuclear power of the Soviet Union.
• Russia has a pivotal strategic location in the center of the Eurasian land mass.
• Russia is able to establish economic linkages with the expanding world economy due to the ending of state socialism.

Minus

• The theft of State property and the collapse of constitutional order have undermined respect for the law, and organized crime has flourished.
• Real wages for most people have fallen to 1950's levels.
• Industry has obsolescent technology and low-grade product lines
• The infrastructure is shoddy and dangerous.
• Modernization is a massive task due to the previous suppression of computers, fax machines, and photocopiers seen as a threat to central control.
• Civil society and institutions of business and democracy must be renewed after 70 years of state socialism.

THE UNITED STATES

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• The U.S. is the reigning world leader, with the largest economy, a broad resource base, a large sophisticated work force, a domestic market with more purchasing power than any other, and a high level of technological sophistication.
• The upper Midwest, after a painful economic restructuring, is now the fastest-growing exporter of manufactured goods in the United States.
• The U.S. has the largest economy in the world, a broad resource base, and a domestic market that has greater purchasing power than any other nation.
• The U.S. has a well-trained, sophisticated work force, and high level of technological development.
• The U.S. has free markets, personal liberty, private property, electoral democracy, and a culture of mass consumption.
• The U.S. has the most powerful, technologically sophisticated military apparatus, a dominant voice, and the last word in international economic and political affairs.
• The U.S. is well-placed to exploit the new technologies and new industries of a globalizing economy.

Minus

• Citibank was the world's largest bank 10 years ago. Still the largest American bank, it is now 30th in the world.
• Sluggish economic growth, may be overtaken by Japan, Germany, even China.
• Globalization of the economy constrains the U.S. ability to translate economic might into firm control of international financial markets.
• The absence of a Cold War "enemy" makes it much more difficult to define the "national interest," leading to uncertainty in U.S. international policymaking.

SOUTH AMERICA

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Brazil:

• The São Paulo region, with less than 25 percent of Brazil's population, accounts for more than 40 percent of the country's industrial production.
• The automobile industry accounts for 20 percent of São Paulo's industrial production.
• The Carajas iron-ore complex in the Amazon Basin contains 18 billion tons of high-grade ore.

Chile is the world's most important producer of copper.

Minus

By 1994, Brazil’s debt had reached nearly $130 billion with inflation rates in the 1990s ranging between 500 and 2,000 percent.