As we progressed through the course, Modern World, students were able to see various aspects of how technology has improved or deteriorated a civilization or nation. One of the main readings of the course was Headrick's book, Power over Peoples. It is important to look at Headrick's work and see what is meant by his title, Power Over People. From what the students understood, this means using technology as a means to gain an advantage over another civilization, then using one's power or technology to dominate another group of people. Furthermore, it is important to note what is meant by the term “technology”. According to Headrick, technology is “the ways in which human beings use the materials and energy of the environment for their own purposes, beyond what they can do with their own bodies”. From this definition we can deduce that technology is the ability to manipulate other things in our environment. It is also important to note that usually with greater technological power; you can take control over others. Headrick, for example, cites the example of Europeans in their colonial era. More recently; however, Headrick's point of view can be seen in a slightly different way. While superior technology may initially give a group an advantage, there is also a “window of opportunity” with technology. An example of this is air power. At first, air power was unstoppable in traditional battles, but as time progressed, powerful aircraft became less effective when encountering new tactics and asymmetric warfare such as that which occurred in Vietnam. Fast forward to 1999, time brings with it another dilemma where the higher power uses technology, only this time there were both positives and negatives based on dif...... half of paper..... . and expansion. History has proven this time and time again. One of the reasons why the European empire was so successful was due to its great advancement in technology. But what you need to keep in mind is that with this technology comes the time factor. As time goes by, technology may advance but people also find ways around this technology or the technology disappoints you. For example, in Vietnam air power failed due to adaptation. Just as in Kosovo, the technological use of air power failed due to other circumstances. As Serbs were driven out of Kosovo, killings increased and fighting increased due to people's frustrations and willpower to fight for what they believe in. Therefore, although technology can gain a great advantage over adversaries, it can never replace will and desire. for a nation to achieve its goals, over time that technology can fail.