If USA/Russia/China are the 3 most powerful countries, who are 4,5,6,7,8,9,10 ?

[dead0man]

Yeah, that's pretty much it.  We could argue the order, obviously...and the 10th spot (lots of contenders).  I'd put Germany and Japan over the UK and France and I probably wouldn't have Italy on the list, but I'm not really sure who should replace it.

[dead0man]

Oh yeah, I was going to address that too and forgot.  Russia has a lot of aging nukes and are good at chest thumping, but it's a hollow chest.  They are sitting on a lot of energy, but the world's energy needs are changing and not in a direction that benefits the bear.  Even in it's best days of the Soviet Union, it was just a shell, now it's a shell of a shell.



(and this is a lot less fun with no RussiaSTRONG! posters here)

[dead0man]

China is far more powerful than Russia.

My ranking would look something like this:

1. USA




2. China

The problem with putting the PRC so high is that they don't really deserve it.  HUGE internal issues.  Issues much harder to overcome than anything the other 9 might have to deal with.  They have a large military that is rapidly improving, but it's still a long LONG way behind the West in tech and even Russia.  (stealing tech sounds good on paper and even occasionally works out for the thief, but more often then not, in actual use they are almost never as good as the thing copied and often quite inferior)  They can't project the sh**tty power they do have.  And they don't have any friends that aren't bigger basket cases than they are.

[dead0man]

If you put the EU as one, combining Germany, France, Italy and the rest, it is easily number 2.  The PRC and Russia are fighting for a far distant third.

[dead0man]

In Brazil's place I'd put either Turkey, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is probably the best answer; its soft power has been enormous in the Muslim world for decades and its military is one of the best funded (and with its recent interventions probably among the most experienced top) in the world.

the country that even with billions of dollars spent on US toys can't beat a few thousand Yemeni tribesmen with dusty AKs?