A superpower is a state with a leading position in the international system and the ability to influence events and project power on a worldwide scale; it is considered a higher level of power than a great power. Lyman Miller (Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School), defines a superpower as "a country that has the capacity to project dominating power and influence anywhere in the world, and sometimes, in more than one region of the globe at a time, and so may plausibly attain the status of global hegemon." It was a term first applied in 1944 to the United States, the Soviet Union, and to the British Empire. Following World War II, the power of the British Empire waned, and the Soviet Union and the United States were regarded as the only two superpowers, then engaged in the Cold War.
After the Cold War, the most common belief held that only the United States fulfilled the criteria to be considered a superpower. China, India, Russia and the European Union, however, appear to have the potential of achieving superpower status within the 21st century. Others, however, doubt the existence of superpowers in the post Cold War era altogether, stating that today's complex global marketplace and the rising interdependency between the world's nations has made the concept of a superpower an idea of the past and that the world is now multipolar.