25 most important countries

[Felch]

By RSA do you mean South Africa? And if so, why not just say South Africa?

I also think that your list is full of misconceptions and wishful thinking.

[Asher]

Saudi Arabia is high on this list because of its immense oil deposits

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oil_reserves

In bbl
Saudi Arabia's oil reserves: 266,700,000,000
Canada's: 178,100,000,000

For comparison:
Venezuela: 99,380,000,000
Russia: 79,000,000,000
USA: 21,320,000,000
China: 16,000,000,000

[KrazyHorse]

Asher: now multiply by current world price and you get that SA's reserves are equal to ~1.5 times US GDP for one year

Oil is overrated in terms of the wealth/power it provides.

[Asher]

Asher: now multiply by current world price and you get that SA's reserves are equal to ~1.5 times US GDP for one year

Oil is overrated in terms of the wealth/power it provides.

I'm just illustrating inconsistencies in his methodology.

[KrazyHorse]

I'm not disagreeing with you.

I was attempting to make your criticism stronger.

[Guynemer]

Under what possible metric is ****ing Italy anywhere close to being one of the ten most important countries on Earth?

[Asher]

Pasta?

[Al B. Sure!]

Silly list but maybe we can actually standardize it a bit. There's no way to really measure diplomatic power or cultural influence, but we can easily measure economic and military strength. Here's the top 25 by GDP and military spending, courtesy of the CIA World Factbook:

GDP (in millions USD):

1 United States 14,430,000
2 Japan 5,108,000
3 People's Republic of China 4,814,000[2]
4 Germany 3,273,000
5 France 2,666,000
6 United Kingdom 2,198,000
7 Italy 2,090,000
8 Brazil 1,499,000
9 Spain 1,466,000
10 Canada 1,335,000
11 Russia 1,232,000
12 India 1,095,000
13 Mexico 1,017,000
14 Australia 930,000
15 South Korea 809,700
16 Netherlands 799,000
17 Turkey 608,400
18 Indonesia 514,900
19 Switzerland 484,100
20 Belgium 461,500
21 Poland 423,000
22 Sweden 397,700
23 Saudi Arabia 384,000
24 Austria 374,400
25 Norway 369,000

Military expenditures (and as % of GDP):

1 United States 663,255,000,000 4.3%
2 China 98,800,000,000 2.0%
3 United Kingdom 69,271,000,000 2.5%
4 France 67,316,000,000 2.3%
5 Russian Federation 61,000,000,000 3.5%
6 Germany 48,022,000,000 1.3%
7 Japan 46,859,000,000 0.9%
8 Saudi Arabia 39,257,000,000 8.2%
9 Italy 37,427,000,000 1.7%
10 India 36,600,000,000 2.6%
11 South Korea 27,130,000,000 2.8%
12 Brazil 27,124,000,000 1.5%
13 Canada 20,564,000,000 1.3%
14 Australia 20,109,000,000 1.8%
15 Spain 19,409,000,000 1.2%
16 Turkey 19,009,000,000 2.2%
17 Israel 14,309,000,000 7.0%
18 Greece 13,917,000,000 3.6%
19 United Arab Emirates 13,052,000,000a 5.9%a
20 Netherlands 12,642,000,000 1.4%
21 Poland 10,860,000,000 2.0%
22 Colombia 10,055,000,000 3.7%
23 Republic of China (Taiwan) 9,866,000,000 2.1%
24 Iran 9,174,000,000b 2.7%
25 Singapore 7,966,000,000 4.1%

[OzzyKP]

Very interesting. Europe spends more on military than I expected.

Also,

1. why on earth is Greece even on that list in the first place, and
2. why do they devote more of their economy to military than any other European nation on the list?

[Al B. Sure!]

Unsurprisingly, most countries appear on both lists. As far as I can tell, Mexico, Indonesia, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, and Norway are the economic powers that don't have correspondingly top 25 military budgets and Israel, Greece, the UAE, Iran, Colombia, Taiwan, and Singapore are more militant than economic. I may have missed some though.

South Korea is fairly high on both GDP and military expenditures, but was not even mentioned by the OP. South Korea seems like a bit of a marginal power but it's definitely respectable. Also, Italy is surprisingly high (7th and 9th) on both lists. Italy deserves more credit than they get apparently.

[OzzyKP]

Korea was 14th in the OP list.

[C0ckney]

Very interesting. Europe spends more on military than I expected.

Also,

1. why on earth is Greece even on that list in the first place, and
2. why do they devote more of their economy to military than any other European nation on the list?

1. turkey
2. see above

[Al B. Sure!]

One cool thing that I've noticed is that the countries that only appear on one list, appear on the bottom of the list they are on... so the economically strong but militarily weak countries like Sweden, Norway, and Austria are towards the bottom of the top 25 economic while the strong militarily but economically weak countries like Colombia, Israel, Iran, Greece have bottom top 25 militaries. So pretty much, countries in the top 25 of both lists are that much better because they're having their cake and eating it too as opposed to other countries that are concentrating in one area and are in the 20-25 range for their strength.

I had to do it since the OP challenged us for our own top 25 lists. Not scientific but a little more data backed than his list:

I'm assigning a point for being in the top 25 of either list, 2 points for top 20, 3 for top 15, 4 for top 10, 5 for top 5:

10 point group:
US
China
France (!)

9 point:
Japan
Germany
UK

8 point:
Italy
Russia

7 point:
Brazil
Spain
Canada
India

6 point:
Australia
South Korea

5 point:
Saudi Arabia

4 point:
Netherlands
Turkey

3 point:
Mexico

2 point:
Indonesia
Switzerland
Belgium
Poland
Israel
Greece
UAE

1 point:
Sweden
Colombia
Taiwan
Iran
Singapore
Austria
Norway

It does seem silly to equate Italy and Russia though as equal in power The rest seem fairly spot on even if France is a little high and it's odd to group Sweden with Colombia in power.

[OzzyKP]

3) Why is Germany high?
Because it's the most important of european states, and one of few which has good export values. It has immense impact on world culture, etc. Perhaps I should've put China higher, but it'd be just an indication that quantity values more than quality.

immense impact on world culture?

A lot perhaps in Poland, but I'd wager Japan has quite a bit larger impact on culture than Germany. Plus they have a bigger economy. I'd definitely rank Germany below both China & Japan. I'm not sure which of those two would get second, probably Japan at this point but with China soon to over take them. Actually... based on the UK's activity in foreign affairs, and a much more relevant culture, I'm putting them ahead of Germany too.

So for a very half-assed attempt to do my own list:

1) USA (not declining)
2) Japan
3) China
4) UK
5) Germany
6) France
7) Russia
8) India
9) Brazil
10) Italy
11) Spain
12) Canada
13) South Korea
14) Saudi Arabia
15) Australia
16) Mexico
17) Turkey
18) The Netherlands
19) Israel
20) Pakistan
21) Indonesia
22) Iran
23) Poland
24) Venezuela
25) United Arab Emirates

[Al B. Sure!]

Korea was 14th in the OP list.

Oh you're right. I missed that. Maybe I was thinking he meant North