Best bits for teaching Superpowers
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Written November 2025
From September until now (November 2025) I’ve been doing a BIG update of my Edexcel A-Level Superpowers resources. This is partly because the world changes so much from year to year and partly because, well, nearly 10 years into the spec, I realised that I was still massively over-teaching some sections. In my recent webinars for Cooper Education (more coming next year!), I feel like I made the same point a hundred times over: the most common problem I see at A-Level is over-teaching…
Now, that’s not to say that we shouldn’t go beyond the spec at points (of course we should- I’ve shared my thoughts on how here) but I do think we need to be careful about where we’re going off-piste- are we going so far off-piste that our students struggling to see the wood through the trees? Are we making the core knowledge of the topic clear? Are we focusing on the right things, in the right depth? With the rise of AI, this is a problem I see only getting worse (something I’d like to blog about what I get time…).
So, in a quest to share my knowledge having taught this every year since 2016, I wanted to share some ‘best bits’ that I use in my resources. Hopefully this will be a useful summary but I’d love to hear anything I might have missed out or not be aware of- please get in touch!
7.1
This graph and this graph for (relatively) up to date sanction levels.
Source: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/03/24/how-europe-can-hurt-russias-economy
This article for discussing the decline of US soft power.
7.3
This PDF for a summary of military spending.
This graphic for up to date information about nuclear warheads- showing that it’s not just about military spending about military capacity.
This article for extra reading about how China’s trade is thriving despite the trade war.
This article for extra reading about how India’s poverty persists despite its recent economic growth.
This handout for a summary of Rostow’s Modernisation theory.
This clip for adding to their understanding of development theories.
And, my absolute old-fashion favourite, a hand-drawn mind map for summarising EQ1.
7.4
This handout for a summary of the different IGOs- taken from the Hodder revision guide.
This article for the rise of Chinese TNCs:
This hand-drawn mind-map as a recap of what they should already know about cultural influence.
This clip for how Labubu’s population can be seen as a sing of China’s changing global image.
This article for reinforcing those ideas (although I can’t open this article on the school network!).
This clip for extra watching about how China’s cultural (and broader influence) is changing.
This clip for extra watching about how China is starting to lead the world in tech.
7.5
This article for the decline of America as the global policeman.
This clip for making it clear that the USA’s decline as the global policeman did not start with Donald Trump.
This clip for how the USA’s decline has continued under Donald Trump.
This clip about the work of UN Peacekeepers.
This clip for extra watching about the work of the UN.
7.6
This article about China’s willingness to act on climate change.
This clip as extra watching about the UK’s willingness to act on climate change.
And, another one, a hand-drawn mind map for summarising EQ2.
7.7
This clip for rising tensions in the Arctic.
This article for extra reading about how the Arctic will become increasingly connected to the global economy.
This clip for rising tensions in the South China Sea.
And, this one.
This podcast for extra reading / listening.
7.8
This clip for discussing China’s influence and investment in Africa.
And this article for how Africa has increasingly looked east as a result of Western aid cuts.
This clip for specifically discussing the Belt And Road Initiative.
And this clip for extra watching / taking it further (although, again, sometimes doesn’t work through school filter system!).
This extract for setting the scene about the BRI.
And this article for an update on the BRI in 2025.
7.9
This clip for discussing the issue of the UK’s national debt and why we should care.
This summary of space exploration by superpowers from ‘The Future of Geography’ by Tim Marshall
And this clip for extra watching / taking it further.
To draw the topic together
This article to tie together the implied China Vs USA debate of the topic.
And this table for the most up to date summary of China’s and America’s strengths I could produce!
Finally, the last hand-drawn mind map of the topic for summarising EQ3.
So there we are, my ‘best bits’ for teaching Edexcel A-Level Superpowers updated for the 2025-2026 academic year!
It’ll aim to keep this as updated as possible so please do check back to see what’s been added…
If you have anything else to add or share, please let me know below!