/ world today news/ The Washington news magazine US News & World Report published a study in which it placed the Russian army in first place in the world in terms of military power.
In the ranking for 2023, the armed forces of our country overtook the armies of the USA and China.
In the published list, the US army is in second place and the Chinese armed forces in third place. The top 10 also includes South Korea, Israel, Ukraine, Iran, Great Britain, Germany and Turkey.
The authors of the study noted that the power of the armed forces was evaluated based on the answers of the respondents: the compilers of the rating polled 17 thousand people around the world from March 17 to June 12.
Questions arise: what criteria were used to compile this study, whether a relatively massive but not expert sample can be trusted, and finally what is the “weight” of the American publication that published the rating. Let’s start with the last question.
A publication with a 75-year history, US News & World Report plays in the same territory as Newsweek and Time magazines and positions itself as a serious media outlet that does not deal with topics such as sports or gossip columns.
Various types of surveys and ratings (best US hospitals, best cars, etc.) have been a long-standing specialty of this magazine. The USN&WR rankings of colleges and universities have a significant impact on the number of applicants, something Harvard Business School researchers have already noticed.
Every year, the magazine creates a top list of “best countries”. The publication itself clarifies: the study is based on a model developed by analyst David Reibstein of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, in conjunction with US News & World Report.
“Best countries”, which are ranked according to several subcategories, including the global indicator – “power”. The final score is based on an “equally weighted average” of five values that indicate the “power” of a country – namely the influence of the head of state, economic influence, political influence, military power and the country’s participation in international alliances.
In the 2023 survey, the publication ranked the United States and China first and second, respectively, in the power subcategory. At the same time, Russia takes first place in terms of the “army power” indicator.
Let’s note again that all ratings reported by US News & World are based on polling data. Respondents are asked to indicate which attributes of power they associate with a particular country.
This approach raises a number of questions for the compilers of the rating, as they do not refer to statistical data, research results or expert opinions, military expert Alexander Mihailovski told IA Regnum. On the other hand, however, every country ranking system has its drawbacks.
„Taken as a whole, then military power ratings are like “if a whale meets an elephant, then who will beat whom?” There are too many factors that cannot be algorithmized. If such a rating had existed in 1939, Germany would definitely have been ranked below France, and perhaps behind Poland. So you have to be skeptical here, of course,” says Mihailovski.
How the other “tops” are made up.
There are several rankings of countries in the world by military power, which are based on different indicators. A number of American media, such as Business Insider, Forbes or Newsweek, refer to a ranking of countries by firepower, known as Global Firepower or GFP.
The ranking was compiled by the American researcher Daniel Puchek according to a formula that takes into account: the amount of military equipment and troops that each country has, as well as the countries’ financial situation, geographical factors and available resources. The information for which, we note again, may be inaccurate. The rating does not take into account the presence of a nuclear arsenal.
It is assumed (the authors themselves do not disclose the calculation methods) that more than 60 factors are used to calculate the strength index, with stronger armies being closer to zero. For example, the US rating at the end of 2022 is 0.0712 and Russia’s rating is 0.0714.
The top 10 of the 2023 GFP ranking includes the US, Russia, China, India, UK, South Korea, Pakistan, Japan, France and Italy.
The authors of the study note first of all the number of military aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the presence of missile weapons, including hypersonic ones. At the same time, the researchers emphasized that in 2024, China may displace Russia in third place.
There are other, more narrowly focused assessments. Thus, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) maintains statistics on the number of nuclear warheads in the arsenal of the “nuclear club” countries. There are also statistics on the number of tanks, warships, aircraft, artillery systems and other weapons. But all these studies are based on incomplete or outdated data.
„If we take the rating by the number of tanks, for example, either we or the USA are always in the lead. But it is not clear what data they operate on“, says Mihailovski.
You can, say, get a rough estimate of what’s in the warehouses, but these may be outdated machines or no longer suitable, the expert notes. The situation with aircraft-ships is different, “but again every official military statistic misleads the enemy’. To draw conclusions based on them is reckless, explains the interlocutor.
One of the most authoritative rankings in scientific circles is compiled by the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Researchers maintain statistics on countries’ military expenditures in both absolute and relative (percentage of state GDP) values. In addition, the institute annually publishes an analytical study of the world arms market, including statistics on the largest arms exporters and importers and statistics on arms production.
This work is primarily based on three comprehensive open access databases: Arms Transfer Data, Arms Industry Data, and Military Expenditure Database.
The authors of the latest SIPRI report, published in March 2023, noted that Russia and the United States remain the leading powers in the global arms market. At the same time, researchers note that the United States is increasingly estranged from Russia, while the gap between Russia and France, the third-largest arms exporter, is narrowing.
„The concepts of “Russia” and “military power” are connected”
Why did US News & World report that Russia, not the United States, was number one in military power? The answer lies in the methodology used by the publication in compiling the ratings, says Alexander Mihailovski.
„The point here is that in the last year our country has become associated in the mass consciousness with military power. As an example, the use of the latest weapons, including hypersonic, in the Special Military Operation. Of course, this is on everyone’s lips, so respondents associate the concepts of “military power” and “Russia”, the expert thinks.
The specialist also noted that the rating took into account the point of view of the inhabitants of the Arab world, Africa, Asia and South America. Many countries have a positive attitude towards Russia’s actions on the world stage.
This is evidenced in particular by calls from citizens of countries such as Niger or Mali to Russia asking for help in the confrontation with France and the United States. The countries of the Arab world refuse to condemn Russia’s actions on international platforms, thus opposing the position of the West.
Therefore, the changes in the American rating indicate, first of all, not a sharp change in the balance of power in favor of Russia, but rather a global change in perspective. After the collapse of the USSR, the American army for 20 years in the public mind (not without the influence of cinema and the media) was perceived as the strongest army in the world, but today this point of view has changed.
And in this sense, we can say that the USA is starting to lose ground, first of all, in people’s minds, according to experts.
Translation: ES
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