Testing One Framework for Measuring National Power in the Postindustrial Age

Abstract

This composition was written in an effort to test a framework set forth by a group of researchers from the Rand Corporation. Measuring National Power in the Postindustrial Age is a book by Ashley J. Tellis, Janice Bially, Christopher Layne, and Melissa McPherson written with the specific goal of providing a detailed framework that would be useful to the United States' intelligence agencies as they attempt to determine which states will likely become prominent actors on the international stage, and the broader goal of allowing an evaluation of one or two countries rather than a mere rank ordering of states based on traditional uni-or multivariate approaches to measuring national power. The testing of the framework was achieved through the use of two case studies: India and Pakistan. It becomes clear, after using the two case study countries to test the framework, that the framework is an excellent way to organize the collection of data toward the ends listed above, but that the framework has limitations pertaining to the ability to actually gather all of the data necessary to successfully fulfill its requirements. The complex nature of the framework made for an exhaustive search for data and information dealing with India and Pakistan but ultimately allowed for reasonable assessment of national power in the two countries, not in the sense of which one was definitively more or less powerful, but rather, in a way that allows for the assessment of areas of strength and weakness country that a country may have.