[Proctor]

What do you consider to be the ten most powerful countries today? Here are my thoughts:

1 USA
2 China
3 Britain
4 France
5 Russia
6 Germany
7 India
8 Japan
9 Australia
10 Israel

When I showed Mum she asked why Australia is on there. I replied, they have friends in high places, and have a surprising amount of political clout.

[Yeddi]

Yeah, i was just about to ask the same question, but i still don't think its true, Australia may have strong relations with the US, but its going one way, they have influence on our decisions not the other way round.
The list is hard, because so you mean economically, militarily, sphere of influence?

[Jesse]

Military, with Bush, its all that matters. Tragic, eh?

[Evan Roberts]

1 USA
2 China
3 Britain
4 France
5 Russia
6 Germany
7 India
8 Japan
9 Australia
10 Israel

Britains should be much further down. Economicly it's quite week, behind russia germany and France and probably alot more. Although it is still a (fairly) big arms seller. Diplomatically it plays an important role for america though.

Russia would be my number two, then probably germany. Australia should be nowhere near the top ten!

I'd say the USA is probably more powerfull than the rest of your top 10 put together, atleast in milatary might.

[Proctor]

Hmmm. You make a good point about Britain. But the fact of the matter is that a lot of the world look up to Britain as their protector, regardless of whether they could help when the crunch came or not. So they are still powerful diplomatically, which is what I mostly placed them on, how well they can make others listen.

Russia is definately not 2. They have all but collapsed since the Cold War.

Australia has strong influence in many countries, so thats why they are there. I had Pakistan at 11, so perhaps they should take their place, but when was the last time anyone listened to, let alone consulted the Pakistanis?

And I agree, America is stronger than the other 9 put together.

[Man On The Moon]

Its an interesting List, I think that you have britain about right, though undoubtdly much if its current influence is from the Empire days, and the commonwealth which helps it maintain a network with many countries, and I think We'll see this diminish as more and more countries renounce their ties or become self sufficent, though i think now that the rift is forming in europe (spanish, italian and british V french, german and belgians) we'll see individual countries gain more power, generally becuase the european union will be less influencial with its members infighting.

oops, not entirely sure that made sense.

[Krasniy Yastreb]

Makes perfect sense to me mate......

It think whether one likes it or not, at the end of the day, the power's in the nukes. I mean most countries in the above list are nuclear powers, right?

So interesting, nuclear weapons. they prevent great destruction, yet assure it......

[Man On The Moon]

What do you consider to be the ten most powerful countries today? Here are my thoughts:

1 USA- nuclear equipped
2 China - nuclear equipped
3 Britain- nuclear equipped
4 France- nuclear equipped
5 Russia- (assuming they can find them) nuclear equipped
6 Germany- Don't think they possess nuclear weapons
7 India- nuclear equipped
8 Japan- don't think they posses nuclear weapons
9 Australia- Think they do?
10 Israel- nuclear equipped.

When I showed Mum she asked why Australia is on there. I replied, they have friends in high places, and have a surprising amount of political clout.

[Evan Roberts]

Russia is definately not 2. They have all but collapsed since the Cold War.

True, but i'm guessing they still have many submerines and nuclear wepons.
They are also one of only five countries that are allowed to use the veto in the UN councill, something quite important at the moment!

[Man On The Moon]

Russia is definately not 2. They have all but collapsed since the Cold War.

True, but i'm guessing they still have many submerines and nuclear wepons.
They are also one of only five countries that are allowed to use the veto in the UN councill, something quite important at the moment!

depends, if the UN is bypassed anyway, then the Veto is as good as a chocolate fireguard.

[Man On The Moon]

Russia is definately not 2. They have all but collapsed since the Cold War.

True, but i'm guessing they still have many submerines and nuclear wepons.
They are also one of only five countries that are allowed to use the veto in the UN councill, something quite important at the moment!

depends, if the UN is bypassed anyway, then the Veto russia hold along with the other four countries on the Security council is as good as a chocolate fireguard.

[Jesse]

Man on the Moon is enjoying his quoting.

[Man On The Moon]

erm, ive no idea why the above was posted, it doesn't add anything does it?

[Evan Roberts]

depends, if the UN is bypassed anyway, then the Veto is as good as a chocolate fireguard.

True, but Tony blairs next election depends on this UN resolution! I'm sure he considers Russia's veto very important.

actually I think that Labour will proably stay in power no matter what, who is the opposition in the UK? Conservatives have had it. The liberal democrats??

[Man On The Moon]

the lib dems are very limited, they are in coalition gov with labour in scotland, so by being partly in power cant be too critical of the gov. and the conservatives support the war on iraq
opposition comes mainly from the SNP, who are only active in scotland.

[Proctor]

Yes, as I said, I mostly based it on how well they convince others that they are right, and having a Security Council veto will help you in that respect vastly. But not so much nuclear weapons. When was the last time we listened to South Africa, Pakistan or North Korea?

And just to clarify, all those Man on the Moon said were nuclear equipped indeed are, but Germany, Japan and Australia are not. I don't understand why Germany and Japan don't, they could build one in about a week if they wanted to. But Australia quite possibly will by the time the Howard government is finished....

[Russian]

China shouldn't be in number 2, atleast I dont think it should be there

[CasX]

No way, China is definitely number 2. Hey Proctor this is weird: what former Wairarapa MP is convinced that China is the next world superpower that will surpass all others?

Wyatt Creech

Anyway, China is huge, and immensly powerful. It won't be that long before they'll be the most powerful, simply by the population and industrial power of their economy.

[Sovietski]

USA is the most influencial country but the one with the most nukes always wins! so isnt it Russia or are they still decreasing there numbers becuase america sure isnt

[Man On The Moon]

Thats the only real advantage that any country has over china-

time.

china is still in the stage of development, and has yet to even come close to reaching its full potential, and when it does it will be listened to without failure. what really angers me is those who say china could take ovr any country it wants now, that is simply untrue, its armed forces are unmotivated, ill equipped and trained, and it simply has the advantage of numbers, it could not attack a more well developed nation such as America, simply becuase the chinese Navy is no where near a match for the american (or british) navy, meaning there would be no way to ship an invasion force becuase they would be eliminated before they reached their land target, also china's missile stockpile is not a threat, they have yet to advance the technology for the newer generation of stealth weaponery.

though remembering, all this is simply becuase they have not had the time to develop it.