📍 Buenos Aires vs. Brasília: The Illusion of Power Concentration

Both Argentina and Brazil are large Latin American states with long-standing geopolitical aspirations. Yet in the Urban Power Index, Buenos Aires ranks significantly higher than Brasília.

This may seem like a sign of strength. Buenos Aires concentrates infrastructure, energy, diplomacy, and media visibility in a way that grants it a higher functional centrality.

But that concentration also reveals a strategic fragility.

In Brazil, power is dispersed: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and Brasília all perform distinct roles—economic, cultural, administrative, and military.

In Argentina, Buenos Aires is the center—for everything. This lack of functional decentralization may grant Buenos Aires a higher index score, but also reflects an excessive centralism that reduces national resilience.

📍 Addis Ababa: A Regional Capital with Global Reach

Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is a textbook example of regional overperformance.

Despite its country’s modest global standing, the city hosts the headquarters of the African Union and numerous regional and international missions.

This makes Addis a diplomatic hub of Sub-Saharan Africa, often functioning more as a continental node than a national capital.