What are the most powerful and influental countries?

[MrFun]

Madagascar is one of the most powerful and influential countries in the world.

[dannubis]

Yes, we have all figured out you are an idiot.

Sure! Again a reply to the point... tool !

[Patroklos]

You seem to be under the impression that you have made points in this thread. You shouldn't be.

[dannubis]

I din't claim I made points. You state absolutes in something you clearly have no understanding of.

[Patroklos]

Okay, now you really do have to explain to us what the hell you are talking about. Absolutes, who the hell said anything about absolutes? I certainly hope you are not indicative of the education level of Belgium's citizenry in general.

[Asher]

The US isn't as powerful as it once was. They can't even take Iraq properly. They ****ed up in Vietnam too.

I'm pretty sure the US would win the contest of least effective military, dollar-for-dollar spent.

[rah]

Fortunately we so overspend on military we are still better than any other.

[rah]

I wonder if you have to include Iran and North Korea since they make the rest of the world jump through so many hoops then just ignore them.

[SlowwHand]

Liechtenstein!

[RGBVideo]

We all know the real answer is Finland.

How is the developing world doing? India still has >1B population, China will hit 1.5B sooner or later.

[Heresson]

EU
USA
China
Russia
Japan
UK
France
Germany
India
Turkey
Italy
Saudi Arabia (not powerful, but influential)
Egypt (not powerful, but influential)
Brazil
Mexico
Indonesia

[Winston]

The Vatican should not be overlooked.

[Monk]

The EU is not a country. I know that allows the Europeans to try and claim #2, but reconcile yourself with reality

Don't worry Patroklos, there are some of us who have done just that. Thankfully we're still not one country and shouldn't be listed as such...

[Az]

@ Achilles' gay lover

I note that israel is absent from your list... yet they have directly or indirectly determined your entire ME foreign policy and the cluster**** that is the war on terror.

lol the current cluster**** the US is in, in the ME has little to do with Israel. Israel opposed the US invasion of Iraq, for example, and has almost nothing to do with Afghanistan.

[Heraclitus]

The EU is not a country. I know that allows the Europeans to try and claim #1, but reconcile yourself with reality

ftfy

The EU has the largest GDP on the planet (and it will only expand with the inclusion of new states in the years to come). If we are throwing reality out the window we may just as well be consistent with our alternative reality.


BTW Just because something isn't a country dosen't mean it isn't a factor or power player. Several coroporations are more powerfull than small countries and alliances of many countries (despite their occasional diverging interests) can be more powerfull than a unitied state (provided the alliance is stronger and much more populus than the unitary state in questioin, if they are the same size the alliance would by default be the weaker on)


The EU is much like the Holy Roman Empire, it can on occasion act in unison but its reality is a number of indipendant states and no one disputes that. But lets not forget that no one (including the CIA factbook) dosen't deny that it is more than just a free trade zone.