Middle power is a term used in the field of international relations to describe states that are not superpowers or great powers, but still have large or moderate influence and international recognition. There is no single specific definition of which countries are middle powers.

Definition[link]

There is no standard agreed method to decide which states are middle powers. Some researchers use Gross National Product (GNP) statistics to draw lists of middle powers around the world. Economically, middle powers are generally those that are not considered too "big" or too "small", however that is defined. However, economics is not always considered the defining factor. Under the original sense of the term, a middle power was one that had some degree of influence globally, but not dominance over any one area. However, this usage is not universal, and some define middle power to include nations that can be regarded as regional powers.

According to academics at the University of Leicester and University of Nottingham;

"middle power status is usually identified in one of two ways. The traditional and most common way is to aggregate critical physical and material criteria to rank states according to their relative capabilities. Because countries' capabilities differ, they are categorized as superpowers (or great powers), middle powers or small powers. More recently, it is possible to discern a second method for identifying middle power status by focusing on behavioural attributes. This posits that middle powers can be distinguished from superpowers and smaller powers because of their foreign policy behaviour – middle powers carve out a niche for themselves by pursuing a narrow range and particular types of foreign policy interest. In this way middle powers are countries that use their relative diplomatic skills in the service of international peace and stability. Both measures are contested and controversial, though the traditional quantitative method has proved more problematic than the behavioural method."^{[citation needed]}

According to Eduard Jordaan of the University of Stellenbosch;

"All middle powers display foreign policy behaviour that stabilises and legitimises the global order, typically through multilateral and cooperative initiatives. However, emerging and traditional middle powers can be distinguished in terms of their mutually-influencing constitutive and behavioural differences. Constitutively, traditional middle powers are wealthy, stable, egalitarian, social democratic and not regionally influential. Behaviourally, they exhibit a weak and ambivalent regional orientation, constructing identities distinct from powerful states in their regions and offer appeasing concessions to pressures for global reform. Emerging middle powers by contrast are semi-peripheral, materially inegalitarian and recently democratised states that demonstrate much regional influence and self-association. Behaviourally, they opt for reformist and not radical global change, exhibit a strong regional orientation favouring regional integration but seek also to construct identities distinct from those of the weak states in their region."^[1]

Another definition according to the Middle Power Initiative: "Middle power countries are politically and economically significant, internationally respected countries that have renounced the nuclear arms race, a standing that give them significant international credibility."^[2] Under this definition however, nuclear-armed states like India and Pakistan, as well as every state participant of the NATO nuclear weapons sharing would be excluded from being considered as middle powers.

Middle power diplomacy[link]

According to Laura Neak of the International Studies Association;

Leaders of the G-20 countries and others present at the London Summit. Most members of the G-20 are middle powers while some are great powers.

"Although there is some conceptual ambiguity surrounding the term middle power, middle powers are identified most often by their international behavior–called 'middle power diplomacy' - the tendency to pursue multilateral solutions to international problems, the tendency to embrace compromise positions in international disputes, and the tendency to embrace notions of ‘good international citizenship’ to guide...diplomacy. Middle powers are states who commit their relative affluence, managerial skills, and international prestige to the preservation of the international order and peace. Middle powers help to maintain the international order through coalition-building, by serving as mediators and "go-betweens," and through international conflict management and resolution activities, such as UN peacekeeping. Middle powers perform these internationalist activities because of an idealistic imperative they associate with being a middle power. The imperative is that the middle powers have a moral responsibility and collective ability to protect the international order from those who would threaten it, including, at times, the great or principal powers. This imperative was particularly profound during the most intense periods of the Cold War."^[3]

According to Tomoe Otsuki of the University of British Columbia; "Middle Power does not just mean a state’s size or military or economic power. Rather, 'middle power diplomacy' is defined by the issue area where a state invests its resources and knowledge. Middle Power States avoid a direct confrontation with great powers, but they see themselves as ‘moral actors’ and seek their own role in particular issue areas, such as human rights, environment, and arms regulations. Middle powers are the driving force in the process of transnational institutional-building." (Soeya Yoshihide)^{[citation needed]}

Characteristics of middle power diplomacy include :^{[citation needed]} (Soeya Yoshihide)

• Commitment to multilateralism through global institutions and allying with other middle powers.^[4]
• High degree of civil society penetration in the country's foreign policy.
• A country that reflects and forms its national identity through a 'novel foreign policy': Peacekeeping, Human Security, the International Criminal Court, and the Kyoto Protocol

In March 2008, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd defined his country's foreign policy as one of "middle power diplomacy", along the lines of similar criteria. Australia would "influence international decision-makers" on issues such as "global economic, security and environmental challenges".^[5]

The Middle Powers Initiative (MPI), a program of the Global Security Institute, highlights the importance of middle powers diplomacy. Through MPI, eight international non-governmental organizations are able to work primarily with middle power governments to encourage and educate the nuclear weapons states to take immediate practical steps that reduce nuclear dangers, and commence negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons. Middle power countries are particularly influential in issues related to arms control, being that they are politically and economically significant, internationally respected countries that have renounced the nuclear arms race, a standing that gives them significant political credibility.

History of the term[link]

The concept of the ‘middle power’ dates back to the origins of the European state system. In the 15th century, the Mayor of Milan, Giovanni Botero, divided the world into three types of states – grandissime (empires), mezano (middle powers) and piccioli (small powers).

According to Botero, a mezano or middle power “has sufficient strength and authority to stand on its own without the need of help from others”.^[6]

The term entered Canadian political discourse after the Second World War. Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, for example called Canada "a power of the middle rank" and helped to lay out the classical definition of Canadian middle power diplomacy. When he was advocating for Canada's election to the United Nations Security Council, he said that while "the special nature of [Canada's] relationship to the United Kingdom and the United States complicates our responsibilities", Canada was not a "satellite" of either but would "continue to make our decisions objectively, in the light of our obligations to our own people and their interest in the welfare of the international community."^[7] Canadian leaders believed Canada was a middle power because it was a junior partner in larger alliances (e.g. NATO, NORAD), was actively involved in resolving disputes outside its own region (e.g. Suez Crisis), was not a former colonial power and therefore neutral in anti-colonial struggles, worked actively in the United Nations to represent the interests of smaller nations and to prevent the dominance of the superpowers (often being elected to the United Nations Security Council for such reasons), and because it was involved in humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts around the world.

List of middle powers[link]

The following is a list of countries that have been called middle powers by academics or other experts.

The United Kingdom, China, France, United States and Russia are great powers due to strong economies and their status as recognised nuclear powers and their permanent seats on the UN Security Council. Some academics also believe that Germany and Japan are not middle powers but great powers, due to their economic strengths and global influence.^[8] The overlaps between the lists of middle powers and great powers, and between the lists of small powers and middle powers, show that there is no unanimous agreement among authorities.

See also[link]

• Regional Power
• Emerging power

References[link]

External links[link]

• Middle Powers Initiative

Further reading[link]

• books.google.com Weak States in the International System. By Michael I. Handel.
• South African Foreign Policy and Middle Power Leadership
• Relocating Middle Powers: Australia and Canada in a Changing World Order
• Middle Power Internationalism (Book info)
• Emerging Powers: Governance in a Changing Global Order, a Queen’s Centre for International Relations annual report

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2008)

James Cotton
James Cotton 2007
Background information
Born	(1935-07-01) July 1, 1935 (age 76) Tunica, Mississippi, United States
Genres	Blues
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Vocals, harmonica, drums
Years active	1953–present
Labels	Buddah Records Alligator Records Telarc International
Associated acts	Muddy Waters Howlin' Wolf Matt Murphy
Website	Official website

In Delray Beach, Florida

James Cotton (born July 1, 1935, Tunica, Mississippi, United States)^[1] is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who has performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time as well as with his own band.

Career[link]

Cotton became interested in music when he first heard Sonny Boy Williamson II on the radio. He left home with his uncle and moved to West Helena, Arkansas, finding Williamson there. For many years Cotton claimed that he told Williamson that he was an orphan, and that Williamson took him in and raised him; a story he admitted in recent years is not true. Williamson did however mentor Cotton during his early years.^[2] When Williamson left the south to live with his estranged wife in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he left his band in Cotton's hands. Cotton was quoted as saying, "He just gave it to me. But I couldn't hold it together 'cause I was too young and crazy in those days an' everybody in the band was grown men, so much older than me."

Cotton performing in 2008

Although he played drums early in his career, Cotton is famous for his work on the harmonica.

Cotton began his professional career playing the blues harp in Howlin' Wolf's band in the early 1950s.^[2] He made his first recordings as a solo artist for the Sun Records label in Memphis, Tennessee in 1953. Cotton began to work with the Muddy Waters Band around 1955.^[2] He performed songs such as "Got My Mojo Working" and "She's Nineteen Years Old", although he did not appear on the original recordings; long-time Muddy Waters harmonica player Little Walter was utilized on most of Muddy's recording sessions in the 1950s. Cotton's first recording session with Waters took place in June 1957, and he would alternate with Little Walter on Muddy's recording sessions until the end of the decade, and thereafter until he left to form his own band. In 1965 he formed the Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet, utilizing Otis Spann on piano to record between gigs with Muddy Waters' band. Their performances were captured by producer Samuel Charters on volume two of the Vanguard recording Chicago/The Blues/Today!. After leaving Muddy's band in 1966, Cotton toured with Janis Joplin while pursuing a solo career.^[2] He formed the James Cotton Blues Band in 1967. They mainly performed their own arrangements of popular blues and R&B material from the 1950s and 1960s. Two albums were recorded live in Montreal that year.

James Cotton at Jeff Healey's blues nightclub in Toronto

In the 1960s, Cotton formed a blues band in the tradition of Bobby Bland. Four tracks that featured the big band horn sound and traditional songs were captured on the album Two Sides of the Blue.

In the 1970s, Cotton recorded several albums with Buddah Records. Cotton played harmonica on Muddy Waters' Grammy Award winning 1977 album Hard Again, produced by Johnny Winter. The James Cotton Blues Band received a Grammy nomination in 1984 for Live From Chicago: Mr. Superharp Himself!, and a second for his 1987 release, Take Me Back. He finally was awarded a Grammy for Deep in the Blues in 1996 for Best Traditional Blues Album.^[3]

Cotton appeared on the cover of Living Blues magazine in 1987 in the July/August issue (#76).^[4] He was featured in the same publication's 40th anniversary issue, released in 2010 in August/September.

Cotton battled throat cancer in the mid-1990s, and his last recorded vocal performance was on 2000's Fire Down Under the Hill, but he continued to tour, utilizing singers or his backing band members as vocalists. Cotton's latest studio album, Giant, is scheduled for release on Alligator Records in late September 2010.^[5]

On March 10, 2008, Cotton and Ben Harper inducted Little Walter into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They performed "Juke" and "My Babe" together at the induction ceremony which was broadcast nationwide on VH1 Classic. On August 30, 2010, Cotton was the special guest on Larry Monroe's farewell broadcast of Blue Monday which he hosted on KUT in Austin, Texas for nearly 30 years.^[6]

Musical company[link]

Cotton has worked with artists including:-

Selected discography[link]

• Chicago/The Blues/Today! vol. 2
• 1966 Cut You Loose! (Vanguard)
• 1967 Cotton in Your Ears (Verve)
• 1970 Taking Care of Business (Capitol)
• 1974 100% Cotton (Buddah; w/ Mat "Guitar" Murphy)
• 1976 Live & On the Move (Buddah)
• 1978 High Energy (Buddah)
• 1984 High Compression (Alligator)
• 1986 Live from Chicago Mr. Superharp Himself (Alligator)
• 1987 Take Me Back (Blind Pig; reissued on vinyl 2009)
• 1988 Live at Antone's (Antone's)
• 1990 Harp Attack! (Alligator; w/ Carey Bell, Junior Wells, and Billy Branch)
• 1991 Mighty Long Time (Antone's)
• 1994 3 Harp Boogie (Tomato)
• 1994 Living the Blues (Verve)
• 1995 Two Sides of the Blues
• 1996 Deep in the Blues (Verve)
• 1998 Seems Like Yesterday (Justin Time)
• 1998 Late Night Blues: Live at the Penelope Café 1967 (Justin Time)
• 1999 Best of the Vanguard Years (Vanguard)
• 1999 Superharps (Telarc; w/ Charlie Musselwhite, Sugar Ray Norcia, and Billy Branch)
• 2000 Fire Down Under the Hill (Telarc)
• 2002 35th Anniversary Jam (Telarc)
• 2004 Baby, Don't You Tear My Clothes (Telarc)
• 2007 Breakin' it Up, Breakin' it Down (Legacy; with Muddy Waters and Johnny Winter)
• 2010 Giant (Alligator)

See also[link]

• Chicago Blues Festival

References[link]

External links[link]

• Allmusic
• James Cotton discography from Music City
• His official website
• Review of Breakin' It Up Breakin' It Down CD on Allmusic.com
• Hondarribia blues festival
• PBS American Roots Music Oral History

Eric De Guia
Kidlat Tahimik (right) and his son Kidlat de Guia
Born	(1942-10-03) October 3, 1942 (age 69) Baguio City, Philippines
Nationality	Filipino
Other names	Kidlat Tahimik
Occupation	movie director, film maker, writer and actor

Eric de Guia (born October 3, 1942 in Baguio City, Philippines), better known as Kidlat Tahimik (a Tagalog translation of "silent lightning"), is a film director, writer and actor whose films are commonly associated with the Third Cinema movement through their critiques of neocolonialism.

One of the most prominent names in the Filipino film industry, he has garnered various accolades locally and internationally, including a Plaridel honorarium for Independent Cinema.

Education[link]

Tahimik attended the University of the Philippines,^[1] where he was a member of the Student Council, then known as the University Student Union, from 1962 to 1963. While attending the university he became a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity. Kidlat Tahimik studied at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, earned a Master in Business Administration, and worked as a researcher for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris from 1968 to 1972.^[2]

Influences[link]

Tahimik grew up in Baguio City, Philippines, a summer resort community established in the presence of several U.S. Military bases. This experience was a weighty influence on the themes of his films, most notably the semi-autobiographical Perfumed Nightmare (1977) and Turumba (1981). The latter of these two films provides some insight into the circumstances that brought him to Europe and into the presence of filmmaker Werner Herzog, who along with director Francis Ford Coppola and his American Zoetrope studio, was instrumental in helping to release Perfumed Nightmare.

Personal life[link]

Kidlat lives in a 4-story home in Benguet, Philippines with his wife Katrin De Guia and their children. In February 2004 a fire was reported to have spread in their home. The family was able to escape safely, but the director's film stock and collection of art and artifacts were destroyed.^[3]

Filmography[link]

Director[link]

• Mababangong bangungot ["Perfumed Nightmare"] (1977)
• Turumba (1981)
• Sinong lumikha ng yoyo? Sinong lumikha ng moon buggy? (1982)
• Orbit 50: Letters to My 3 Sons (1992)
• Why is Yellow Middle of Rainbow? (1994)
• Japanese Summers of a Filipino Fundoshi (1996)
• Our Film - Grimage to Guimaras (2006)
• BUBONG! (Roofs of the World! UNITE!) (2006)
• Memories of Overdevelopment 1980-2010 (1980–2010)

Writer[link]

• Mababangong bangungot ["Perfumed Nightmare"] (1977)
• Turumba (1981)

Producer[link]

• Mababangong bangungot ["Perfumed Nightmare"] (1977)
• Abong: Small Home (2003)

Actor[link]

• Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (Every Man for Himself and God Against All) (1974)
• Mababangong bangungot ["Perfumed Nightmare"] (1977)
• Jag rodnar ["I Am Blushing"] (1981)
• Smaragd (1987)
• Jose Rizal (1998)
• Abong: Small Home (2003)

Awards[link]

• Berlin Film Festival International Critics Award: Perfumed Nightmare (1977)
• Mannheim Film Festival Top Cash Award: Turumba (1981)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kidlat Tahimik at the Internet Movie Database
• The Philippine Movie Database: Kidlat Tahimik
• Homegrown: Kidlat Tahimik(dead link) June 2011
• Interview with Tahimik on eRenlai.com
• The-Artists.org: Kidlat Tahimik
• American Zoetrope Films
• 2010 Taiwan International Documentary Festival Focus Director

Look up willpower in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Willpower may refer to:

• Self discipline, training and control of oneself and one's conduct, usually for personal improvement
• Self control, the ability of a person to exert his/her will over the inhibitions of their body or self
• Will (philosophy), a philosophical concept
• Will to power, a philosophical concept by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Will Power, an Australian racing driver
• #willpower, an album by will.i.am.
• Willpower: rediscovering the greatest human strength. A book by psychologist Roy F. Baumeister

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