Sphere of influence (international relations)

The phrase sphere of influence is used by historians, political scientists, and foreign policy experts when referring to a geographic area where countries, usually leading world powers, exercise military, political, economic, and cultural influence over lesser powers. During the Cold War of the mid-twentieth century, spheres of influence also pertained to the influence an ideology may have had over a geographic area. Originally termed spheres of action, the concept was created during the heart of the scramble for Africa. In an effort to curtail fighting and competition among European powers in Africa and provide limits of influence regarding commercial exploitation, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) called for the Berlin Conference in 1884. During this conference, world leaders came to an agreement that was legally recognized as the General Act of the Conference of Berlin (1885). In the same year, Britain and Germany reached a legal agreement that called for "a separation and definition of their respective spheres of influence in the territories on the Gulf of Guinea." The idea of spheres of influence later shaped American and Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War and East–West relations following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Brief History

Though spheres of influence were not called such until 1885, the idea has existed throughout history where two or more powers have exercised their influence over lesser powers. US President James Monroe delivered a message to Congress in 1823 that established an American sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere against any further European colonization. Though not taken seriously by many European powers, Monroe had established a region of American influence to prevent any further European colonization in Central and South America. Prior to the beginning of World War II, in August 1939, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed between Germany and the Soviet Union. In the eyes of the public, this nonaggression pact asserted mutual nonviolence and assured both countries that peace would endure. In private, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin agreed to carve up Poland and Eastern Europe to expand their respective spheres of influence. Hitler wanted to avoid a two-front war, and Stalin's motivation for the agreement was the creation of a buffer zone in the event of war.

In 1945, immediately following the end of World War II, the Yalta Conference brought together the heads of state from the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The Conference convened to discuss the reorganization and partitioning of Eastern Europe. The end of the war brought about a power vacuum among world powers that was filled by the United States and the Soviet Union. What made further relations complex were the competing ideologies of communism and capitalism. Western Europe was devastated by the war and, in the eyes of American politicians, ripe for communist revolution. In response to this concern, President Harry S. Truman announced to Congress in 1947 what came to be called the Truman Doctrine. It stated that the United States would protect and assist all free people who were not communists and protect them against revolution from within and attack from without. Evolving into what policy analysts refer to as the "doctrine of containment," reversing America's foreign policy from one of isolationism to one of interventionism. From this point forward, the United States would replace Britain as the world's police force.

Overview

In broad terms, the Cold War pitted capitalism against communism. With its doctrine of containment in hand and unrest breaking out in Turkey and Greece, the United States provided international economic and military aid in an effort to stave off the potential of the spread of communism. These were two early successes for containment, but many efforts failed in the remaining decades of the Cold War. Despite an international push by the United States to contain the spread of communism, the Republic of China became a communist nation. This revolution was led by Mao Zedong (1893–1976) and increased the communist sphere of influence in Eastern Asia.

The year prior to the Chinese revolution, President Truman signed the Marshall Plan (1948). Named after Secretary of State George Marshall, the Plan was a massive infusion of American economic aid into Western Europe and other global countries that were economically devastated after World War II and susceptible to the spread of communism. In the twentieth century, the spread of communism occurred in war-torn, desperate societies. The Marshall Plan was made available to all countries of Europe, but Stalin refused aid to war-torn countries of the Eastern bloc, seeing it as an American ploy to peel away the Soviet Union's buffer zone and weaken their sphere of influence.

In 1948, the Soviets attempted to significantly weaken Western influence in Germany by setting up a blockade that prevented Allied powers from entering West Berlin. In response, the United States undertook an airlift of aid for eleven months before the Soviets lifted the blockade. In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in response to the previous Berlin crisis. Several years later, in 1955, the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact as a response to West Germany joining NATO.

The consequences of competing ideologies in the twentieth century resulted in many conflicts in underdeveloped nations. In 1950, a United Nations coalition force defended South Korea from a communist invasion from North Korea. Recent scholarship has determined that a large volunteer Chinese force assisted North Korea in the Korean War (1950–53). Other Cold War conflicts over international spheres of influence include the Vietnam War (1955–75), the Soviet invasion of Poland and Hungary (1956), the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba (1959), the Cuban missile crisis (1962), the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968), and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979–89).

Increased globalization in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries encouraged more cooperation among world powers. Superpowers were no longer as driven by competing ideologies. Interrelated economic interests helped to give rise to the principal understanding that economic security is a measure considered in the national security of any given state.

Bibliography

Allison, Graham. “The New Spheres of Influence: Sharing the Globe With Other Great Powers.” Foreign Affairs, Mar./Apr. 2020, www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-02-10/new-spheres-influence. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.

Davis, Lynn Etheridge. The Cold War Begins: Soviet-American Conflict over Eastern Europe. Princeton University Press, 2015.

Gaddis, John Lewis. The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War. Oxford University Press, 1987.

Gardner, Lloyd C. Spheres of Influence: The Great Powers Partition Europe, from Munich to Yalta. Ivan R. Dee, 1993.

Hast, Susanna. Spheres of Influence in International Relations: History, Theory, and Politics. Ashgate Publishing, 2014.

Leffler, Melvyn P. For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War. Hill and Wang, 2007.

Makarychev, Andrey. "Russia, Ukraine and the Eastern Partnership: From Common Neighborhood to Spheres of Influence?" Insight Turkey, vol. 16, no. 3, Summer 2014, pp. 181–99.

Rasler, Karen A., and William R. Thompson. The Great Powers and Global Struggle, 1490-1990. University Press of Kentucky, 2015.

Sexton, Jay. The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth-Century America. Hill and Wang, 2011.