Using the model that has been built and written up – reliably, quantitatively and objectively describing the armed forces of the decided majority of countries of the world – using publicly available data published by institutions, such as the SIPRI Institute from Stockholm and Transparency International, we are now describing the armed forces of the European states, with particular emphasis on the current war in Ukraine.
One of the regions of the world where the risk of the outburst of a conflict currently seems high is the Far East. The strongest military power of that region, or rather the second most powerful in the world, is China. Its strength is growing rapidly, because two generations ago it was actually a third world country. However, it has been developing rapidly since around 1980, and the rate of growth of China’s GDP has frequently been in double digits. China’s GDP has increased approximately tenfold since then, and as China is also a huge country – demographically, one of the two most populous countries on Earth, alongside India – the effect of this growth has also been impressive and has globally changed the balance of power, including military power. So what does the actual military potential of the countries of East Asia and the Pacific look like now?
The Middle East is one of the most geopolitically unstable regions in the world, where clear civilizational, cultural, and economic differences emerge. The divide between technologically advanced Israel and the surrounding Muslim countries, along with the long-standing conflict currently escalating between Israel and Hamas, once again highlights the civilizational and military gap between the sides and the challenges posed by armed confrontation in a region full of tensions and political differences. It is therefore worth examining the actual military capabilities of the individual Middle Eastern armies.
What military potential do the armed forces of individual countries around the world actually have? Is it possible to assess which countries are preparing for war on the basis of publicly available data? Popular rankings usually use a method of calculation – of the number of soldiers in active service and reserves, the number of tanks, aircraft, guns, ships and other equipment. They are seemingly reliable, because they are numerical. But they can generate huge systematic errors because, in order for them to be more accurate, increasingly more details, which are difficult to evaluate and compare, need to be taken into account. So a rational, quantitative approach is needed, based on reliable, objective, quantifiable data. Therefore, it would be useful to build a model objectively showing the quality of the armed forces of the countries around the world, which is simple enough to be understandable and simultaneously useful to a large circle of analysts and commentators.
