The Full Metal Jacket……. Power for The Nations of The Planet

Since antiquity, Thucydides (400BC – 460BC), the Athenian historian and general but also “father” of the study of history, through his work recounting “The History of The Peloponnesian War” (5th century BC), highlighted the importance for the warring states-cities of military power.

Thucydides concludes that the powerful state imposes its conditions on the weak state, and this is purely because its military power allows it. This fact proves that military power cannot be replaced in any way.

By T.C.

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The importance of military power

All the other “tools” available to modern states in their quiver such as diplomacy, alliances between states can help and ensure for a time peace between the warring states but cannot replace the military power—the so-called Full  Metal  Jacket…….Power of the Nations.

According to the American political philosopher John Bordley Rawls (1921-2002), the defense war is the only just war to defend the supreme good of the freedom of the defending state. 

This concept has been incorporated into the UN Charter, namely Article 51, as the “natural right” of any state under attack and, by extension threatened with attack. The alter ego of the defensive war is the aggressive war.   

Military power therefore prevents a war if this power is credible. Its reputable currently can be controlled by existing technological means. It is a measurable and comparable quantity, and no one can deceive the other.

An index which counts the military power of nations is the Global Fire Power (GFP) (www.globalfirepower.com) that has provided a unique detail display concerning 138 modern military powers. The GFP ranking considers the potential war making capability of each nation across land, sea and air fought by conventional means.

The results contemplate values related to military personnel, equipment, natural resources, finances, and geography represented by 50+ individual factors used in formulating finalized GFP ranks.

GFP Ranking (2020)

The Full Metal Jacket …. Power in terms of military spending of the modern nations

Currently, states spend most of the funds to maintain the credibility of their military power, through the continuous strengthening of their armed forces, thereby showing their strength.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) (www.sipri.org/databases/ milex) the world’s states spent a total of about $1,9trillion in 2019 to gain military power. The largest amount was spent by the US $732billion or 38,5% of the total spending amount (see Table below).

Global Military Spending 2019

The US ability to spend huge sums on military purposes to gain the largest military power on the planet is based on two main reasons:

1. At their remarkably high GDP, $21.43trillion (2019) or 25.6% of global GDP
2. In the $ USD that is the main reserve currency of the planet.

Factors that aid military power and the outcome of a war battle

1. Alliances with the right countries.

2. The spirit of national consolidation and support of each society towards the members and objectives of their armed forces.

3. The capacity of politicians and military leadership, as well as local commanders, as well as the determination to use, without hesitation, the maximum possible military power on a case-by-case basis.

4. The existence and availability of smart weapons systems.

5. The extensive or limited scope that will take part in the war battle that allows or limits respectively the possibility of using the maximum military power of each state.

6. The strategic doctrine and the individual tactics to be applied on both sides.

7. Other unpredictable factors.

If the US spends such sums to maintain and increase its military power, it will not be challenged by any state on the planet and will remain for many decades the global superpower.