Found this on another discussion board:
"How do you rank the powers? It occured to me that you could do so by their military expenditure in US dollars, as per the CIA world factbook. It ranks them according to spending, but fails to categorise them. I thought about this, and came up with these categories:
SUPERPOWERS - Spend at least $100 billion to assert themselves globally.
$370 billion - United States
MAJOR POWERS - Spend at least $10 billion to assert themselves regionally.
$67 billion - China
$50 billion - Russia*
$45 billion - Japan, France
$42 billion - United Kingdom
$35 billion - Germany
$28 billion - Italy
$18 billion - Saudi Arabia
$16 billion - India, S Korea, Australia**
$12 billion - Turkey
$11 billion - Brazil
* Russia estimate from globalsecurity.org.
** a misplaced decimal point in the CIA Fact Book under-represents Australia's defense budget by a factor of 10.
MIDDLE POWERS - Spend at least $1 billion to assert themselves locally.
$9 billion - Spain, Canada, Netherlands, Isreal
$7 billion - Taiwan
$6 billion - Mexico
$5 billion - Greece, Sweden, N Korea
$4 billion - Singapore, Argentina, Iran, Norway
$3 billion - Belgium, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, S Africa
$2 billion - Kuwait, Switzerland, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Czech Republic
$1 billion - Finland, Thailand, Malaysia, Venezuela, UAE, Austria, Jordan, Indonesia, Libya, New Zealand, Hungary
MINOR POWERS - Spend at least $100 million on their own security.
$900 million - Bangladesh, Romania
$800 million - Yemen, Syria, Peru, Philippines
$700 million - Qatar, Iceland
$600 million - Ecuador, Serbia, Vietnam, Bahrain, Croatia, Ukraine
$500 million - Sudan, Cuba, Nigeria, Lebanon, Sri Lanka
$400 million - Slovakia
$300 million - Cyprus, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Botswana, Ethiopia
$200 million - (12 countries)
$100 million - (24 countries)
MINNOWS - Spend less than $100 million on their own security.
(rest of the world)"
"How do you rank the powers? It occured to me that you could do so by their military expenditure in US dollars, as per the CIA world factbook. It ranks them according to spending, but fails to categorise them. I thought about this, and came up with these categories:
SUPERPOWERS - Spend at least $100 billion to assert themselves globally.
$370 billion - United States
MAJOR POWERS - Spend at least $10 billion to assert themselves regionally.
$67 billion - China
$50 billion - Russia*
$45 billion - Japan, France
$42 billion - United Kingdom
$35 billion - Germany
$28 billion - Italy
$18 billion - Saudi Arabia
$16 billion - India, S Korea, Australia**
$12 billion - Turkey
$11 billion - Brazil
* Russia estimate from globalsecurity.org.
** a misplaced decimal point in the CIA Fact Book under-represents Australia's defense budget by a factor of 10.
MIDDLE POWERS - Spend at least $1 billion to assert themselves locally.
$9 billion - Spain, Canada, Netherlands, Isreal
$7 billion - Taiwan
$6 billion - Mexico
$5 billion - Greece, Sweden, N Korea
$4 billion - Singapore, Argentina, Iran, Norway
$3 billion - Belgium, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, S Africa
$2 billion - Kuwait, Switzerland, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Czech Republic
$1 billion - Finland, Thailand, Malaysia, Venezuela, UAE, Austria, Jordan, Indonesia, Libya, New Zealand, Hungary
MINOR POWERS - Spend at least $100 million on their own security.
$900 million - Bangladesh, Romania
$800 million - Yemen, Syria, Peru, Philippines
$700 million - Qatar, Iceland
$600 million - Ecuador, Serbia, Vietnam, Bahrain, Croatia, Ukraine
$500 million - Sudan, Cuba, Nigeria, Lebanon, Sri Lanka
$400 million - Slovakia
$300 million - Cyprus, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Botswana, Ethiopia
$200 million - (12 countries)
$100 million - (24 countries)
MINNOWS - Spend less than $100 million on their own security.
(rest of the world)"
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