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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." [1] It was a term first applied in 1943 to the United States, the Soviet Union, and (mostly, but not only) in retrospect 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.