Regional power
state wielding power within a geographic region
A regional power is a sovereign state that exercises significant power in international relations within its geographical region. States that wield unrivaled power and influence within a region of the world possess regional hegemony. These states operate across the international power spectrum – small, middle, and great – with the latter two flexing regional influence as "global swing states".
Characteristics
Regional powers shape the polarity of a regional area. Typically, regional powers have capabilities which are important in the region, but do not have capabilities at a global scale. Slightly contrasting definitions differ as to what makes a regional power. The European Consortium for Political Research defines a regional power as "a state belonging to a geographically defined region, dominating this region in economic and military terms, able to exercise hegemonic influence in the region and considerable influence on the world scale, willing to make use of power resources and recognized or even accepted as the regional leader by its neighbors."
The German Institute of Global and Area Studies states that a regional power must:
Form part of a definable region with its own identity
Claim to be a regional power (self-image as a regional power)
Exert decisive influence on the geographic extension of the region as well as on its ideological construction
Dispose over comparatively high military, economic, demographic, political, and ideological capabilities
Be well integrated into the region
Define the regional security agenda to a high degree
Be appreciated as a regional power by other powers in the region and beyond, especially by other regional powers
Be well connected with regional and global forums
Regional powers
In this list are states that have been described as regional powers by international relations and political science academics, analysts, or other experts. These states, to some extent, meet the criteria for regional power status, as described above. Different experts have differing views on exactly which states are regional powers. States are arranged by their region, and in alphabetical order.
The public source identifies “Regional power” as state wielding power within a geographic region. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Regional, power and state.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Regional power”, the useful work is to connect “state wielding power within a geographic region” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q339834. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Regional power” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.