Fox coined the word " superpower " in his 1944 book '' The Super-Powers : The United States , Britain , and the Soviet Union – Their Responsibility for Peace '' to identify a new category of power able to occupy the highest status in a world in which , as the war then raging demonstrated , states could challenge and fight each other on a global scale . According to him , there were ( at that moment ) three states that were superpowers : the United States , the Soviet Union , and the British Empire . The book forecast the directions that Soviet-American relations would take if the powers did not collaborate , but also made an effort to explore feasible opportunities that leaders might have to forestall that future . Fox was part of the international staff at the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization , the San Francisco meeting that led to the creation of the United Nations Charter . He was one of the contributors to Bernard Brodie 's landmark 1946 volume '' The Absolute Weapon : Atomic Power and World Order '' , where he recognized with Brodie that the future nuclear stand-off between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would become focused on the fear of mutual destruction , but in his portion explored ways that international agreements to limit or control nuclear weapons might improve matters . Fox came away from his activities during this period convinced that the framing of international relations theory should be around the proposition that , " If man is to have the opportunity to exercise some measure of rational control over his destiny , the limits of the possible and the consequences of the desirable both have to be investigated . " Fox joined the Columbia faculty as a full professor in 1950 . Later , he became the James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations from 1968 – 72 , the Bryce Professor of the History of International Relations from 1972 – 80 , and Bryce Professor Emeritus after that
United Nations Conference on International Organization
United Nations Conference on International Organization
William T. R. Fox