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Us magazine the American Interest has compiled a list of the eight most powerful countries in the world. According to the edition, such powers are USA, China, Japan and Russia, which is ahead by one point Germany. The latter is the only one of all European countries included in the list. Germany should be India and Iran, and closes the rating of Israel. RT tried to figure out what criteria selected the best of the best.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that the United States was again in first place, reported in the publication. “As in the past century, the United States remains the most powerful nation on the planet”, — explained in the article The American Interest. The compilers of the list to add that America has maintained its leadership in the world despite the fact that for the Obama administration the past year was one of the worst: the President could not succeed in the international arena, little did he manage to do inside the country.
For Beijing, on the contrary, this year has been very successful. “Taking advantage of the passivity of America, China projected its influence in the South China and East China seas, created a system of artificial Islands, and at the end of the year and even intercepted an American military drone” — like a journal.
Speaking about Russia, the authors noted the success of Moscow in the diplomatic field. “Putin won a victory in Syria in a military sense, and the words, allowing Assad to regain control of Aleppo and thereby humiliating the United States,” the article reads.
An important achievement of the Kremlin, the authors of the rating also called the return of Russia to dialogue with Turkey. “Russia is now in a good position in order to divide Turkey and the West” — says The American Interest.
War machine
If we talk about military power, the leadership of the United States and China, no doubt, says military expert Dmitry Litovkin. However, the third place of Japan raises questions, he said.
“I don’t know how long would the Japan would keep fighting, given that she produces only part of the requested arms, the rest is purchased in the United States,” explained Litovkin in an interview with RT.
According to him, the drafters of any rating should take into account many factors. “For example, when assessing the military power of the state, requires analysis of not only its weapons but also the state of the economy, its ability to reproduce the technique and maintain a war machine on the move”, — said the expert.
Litovkin stressed that if the power implied by the presence of weapons of nuclear destruction, then China and Russia should be in second place after the United States.
“If to assess the ballistic nuclear power, we are on par with Americans, if we compare the strength of the armies, it seems, ahead of China,” he concluded.
In the global namespace
On the other hand, if you put in the forefront not the military power of the state, and economic, it is unclear why so low in the ranking are Germany and why there is no UK, says economist and political scientist, expert of the Institute of contemporary development Nikita Maslennikov.
“The question immediately arises, where in this list did the European community? London, despite brakcet, remains one of the largest financial centres in the world. Moscow can’t compete on economic indicators or London or Berlin,” — said the analyst.
Another thing, if we are talking mainly about the political weight in the world. “It is clear that in recent years Russia has returned to the global policy as one of the leading players. According to the criterion of activity of the global political space, Moscow is ahead of many countries, and Germany in particular. I would put her in second place, close to the United States,” concluded Maslennikov.
We will remind, The American Interest — the American journal on international relations, the world economy and the military sector. Published bimonthly, which was founded in 2005 by members of the editorial Board of The National Interest. The chief editor is Francis Fukuyama.