Most powerful nation relatively?

Relative to all its competitors and neighbors which nation was the most powerful for at least five years, economically and militarily? The U.S. After WW2 is obvious. Are there any that come close or surpass that level of superiority?
 
Israel after 1956.

While I find Israel quite powerful.. It's neighbors are quite week and disorganized .. They look cool on paper but in reality not quite effective ...

Israel also has turned itself into a fortress .. The lessons of ww2 and of course the subsequent Arab israli wars intensifies this mentality

So yes regionally quite powerful.. Bu could they fight a full on toe to toe war with the USA or Soviet Union? Ww2 -1980 USA and Soviet Union were undisputed heavyweights ..

Regionally though.. England, Israel, China, India, Brazil, were effective and strong ..

In Africa .. While many had militarized most were quite ineffective if faced with a modern military and modern practice .. South Africa and Egypt probably the best prepared
 
Imperial Japan, 1895~1941
It had so much fun banging down doors and stealing shit, it decided to bang down the Mayor's and steal his kid for money.
 
Israel after 1956.

While I find Israel quite powerful.. It's neighbors are quite week and disorganized .. They look cool on paper but in reality not quite effective ...

Israel also has turned itself into a fortress .. The lessons of ww2 and of course the subsequent Arab israli wars intensifies this mentality

So yes regionally quite powerful.. Bu could they fight a full on toe to toe war with the USA or Soviet Union? Ww2 -1980 USA and Soviet Union were undisputed heavyweights ..

Objection! After 1956, there was still Egypt, which got massive military support from the USSR. Later you had Iraq, getting its military arsenal with massive help from both the Soviets and NATO countries. In the 1980s, Iraq was probably the biggest power in the Middle East. Today, the armies of Egypt, Turkey and Iran are probably on par with the tsahal. I'd say that Turkey is actually becoming the relatively biggest power in that region.
 
There are plenty of regional Hegemons you can point to throughout History.

Just a few:

-The Ottomans after the fall of Constantinople
-The Spanish in the 1500-1600s
-The British in the 19th century (particularly 1830s to 1880s)

Post 1900s:

Modern Russia relative to any of its neighbors (quite intentionally as they try to keep all the former soviet republics as fragmented and chaotic as possible to keep them dependent, eg: Ukraine, Georgia ect).

Brazil is also in a pretty dominant position in South America, although this is economic influence rather then military force.

China has powerful neighbours (eg. Japan) but it looks to be establishing itself as the most powerful nation in Asia (mainly due to having an order of magnitude more people then any other country in the region).

You could possibly argue that modern Germany fits your description as they are firmly in control of the largest signle economy on Earth (as demonstrated by how the Greek Crisis was handled) Although this dominance will likely not last very long as Germany's demographics are terrible (The UK are projected to surpass Germany's population size by 2050).


Of course not to mention the US which still has a global hegemonic role as possessing by far the most powerful military, biggest cultural influence a massive and extremely dynamic (this is where China is still far behind) economy and a network of satellite countries which are quite powerful in their own right (this is also where China and Russia lag).
 
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China throughout several periods of its history. Rome for a while. Persia and Egypt at certain points as well.
 
The Middle Byzantine Empire before 1071, but they had to fight constantly to keep their dominant position. One might make a distinction between peaceful hegemony interspersed with colonial wars, and a precarious fighting hegemony where there are long-range enemies more powerful than colonial subjects could be. The Middle Byzantines maintained fighting hegemony for an unusually long time. By contrast, the ancient Roman Empire (as opposed to the Roman Republic AND the Byzantines) enjoyed a period of about 300 years in which it fought the equivalent of colonial wars but faced no existential threat. The Middle Byzantines had to face the Arabs, the Persians, and the Bulgarians--incessantly--all of which aspired to destroy them.
 
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