Which countries are middle powers in international relations? While the term “middle powers” has witnessed a steady increase in its use in the past two decades, answers to the question are likely to be diverse, depending on to whom one asks the question. The paper tries to provide objective criteria that would allow one to define the entire population of middle powers and theorize how different types of middle powers are regarded and treated by other countries, most significantly, by great powers. Specifically, we contend that those middle powers with larger potential capability than realized capability, labeled as “middle powers with lots of unrealized potentials,” will initially receive favorable treatments in international organizations, but that favorable treatments will gradually diminish as those middle powers begin to close the gap between their potential and realized capability. In comparison, those countries with limited potential capability but with higher realized capacity, labeled as “mature middle powers,” will be treated in an unbiased manner by other countries. We demonstrate the plausibility of this argument with India and South Korea as examples of each type of middle power within the context of the International Monetary Fund. We show that India initially received some favors—in the form of larger political representation, larger than its size of economy warrants—within the International Monetary Fund when its potentials had not begun to materialize, but once realization of its potentials began, favors that India used to receive have gradually evaporated. In comparison, South Korea has been treated more “objectively” in the International Monetary Fund where its representation closely follows the size of its economy.

哪些国家是国际关系中的中等强国？虽然“中等强国”一词在过去二十年中的使用量稳步增加，但对这个问题的答案可能会有所不同，这取决于向谁提问。本文试图提供客观标准，使人们能够定义中等国家的整体人口，并理论化其他国家如何看待和对待不同类型的中等国家，最重要的是，大国如何看待和对待。具体而言，我们认为那些潜在能力大于已实现能力的中等强国，被标记为“具有大量未实现潜力的中等强国”，最初将在国际组织中获得优惠待遇，但随着这些中等强国开始缩小其潜力与已实现能力之间的差距，这种优惠待遇将逐渐减少。相比之下，那些潜在能力有限但实际能力更高的国家，被称为“成熟的中等强国”，将受到其他国家的公正对待。我们将印度和韩国作为国际货币基金组织背景下每种中等强国的例子，证明了这一论点的合理性。我们表明，当印度的潜力尚未开始实现时，印度最初在国际货币基金组织内获得了一些青睐——以更大的政治代表、超过其经济规模保证的形式——但一旦其潜力开始实现，印度就会得到青睐用来接收的已经逐渐蒸发了。