Superpower collapse - Definition

Superpower collapse, that is, the political collapse of a superpower nation-state, is a term used to describe the actual political collapse of the Soviet Union, and by extension, the theoretical collapse of the other recognized superpower, the United States.

The changes in the USSR occurred most dramatically during the 1980s and early 1990s, with perestroika, the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall, and finally the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Following the reasoning that such a collapse was an inevitable by-product of improved communications technology (an information revolution), some surmise that Internet-based political efforts, most commonly placed under the anti-globalization movement rubric, are effecting a similar change in the United States.

See also:

• Fall of the Roman Empire
• History of the British Empire
• Collapse of the Soviet Union