National power
National power is defined as the sum of all resources available to a nation in the pursuit of national objectives. Assessing the national power of political entities was already a matter of relevance during the classical antiquity, the middle ages and the renaissance and today. Elements of national power. National power stems from various "elements", also called "instruments" or "attributes"; these may be put into two groups based on their applicability and origin - "natural" and "social". Geography. Important facets of geography such as location (geography), climate, topography, and size play major roles in the ability of a nation  to gain national power. Location has an important bearing on foreign policy of a nation. The relation between foreign policy and geographic location gave rise to the discipline of geopolitics. The presence of a water obstacle provided protection to nation states such as Great Britain, Japan, and the United States and allowed Japan to follow isolationist policies. The presence of large accessible seaboards also permitted these nations to build strong navies and expand their territories peacefully or by conquest. In contrast, Poland, with no obstacle for its powerful neighbours, even lost its independence as a nation, being partitioned among the  Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire, and Austria from 1795 onwards till it regained independence in 1918. Climate affects the productivity of Russian agriculture as the majority of the nation is in latitudes well north of ideal latitudes for farming. Conversely, Russia's size permitted it to trade space for time during the Great Patriotic War. Measurements. Depending on the interaction of the individual elements of national power, attempts can be made to classify states and assign them a status in the international order of states. Globally important states with dominant positions in all or almost all elements of national  power are called superpowers. This term was applied to the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. In the 21st century, it is also increasingly applied to the People's Republic of China. Other status classification terms for states include, in descending hierarchy, world powers, great powers, regional powers, middle powers, and small powers. For states or alliances with almost absolute power, the term hyperpower is used. Despite the difficulty of the task and the multidimensional nature of power, several attempts have been made to express the power of states in objective rankings and indexes based on  statistical indicators. Composite Index of National Capability. The Composite Index of National Capability (CINC) was conceived by J. David Singer in 1963. It includes the six factors of total population, urban population, iron and steel production, primary energy consumption, military expenditure and number of soldiers and calculates an index from them. His methodology is considered outdated, however, as he only takes into account "hard" power factors and indicators such as steel production no longer have the same significance as in the early 20th century. National Power Ranking of Countries. The National Power Ranking of Countries was published in a paper  by the University of Warsaw and the University of Wroclaw. It divides countries into the categories of economic, military and geopolitical power, which is derived from statistical indicators. The report also analyzes the evolution of the distribution of power in the world since 1992 and makes a forecast for 2050, noting an increasing shift of power from the Western world to the Asia-Pacific region. State Power Index. The State Power Index was developed by Piotr Arak and Grzegorz Lewicki and takes into account the factors of economy, military, land area, population, cultural influence, natural resources and diplomacy, which is  combined into an overall index.