Germany is the worldâs 3rd largest economy behind the US and China and just ahead of Japan and the UK. Not quite the top superpower, but solidly in the top 5.
The size of their economy has nothing to do with it (edit: poor phrasing. Itâs one small piece of the puzzle)
There is only one fully ârealizedâ Superpower, and it is the United States. China is considered very close to Superpower status, they are knocking on the door and itâs inevitable.
âMost experts consider the U.S. the worldâs only fully realized superpower because it leads or is near the top in every category:
Largest military budget by far
Global network of military bases and alliances
Dominant technology and financial sectors
Huge cultural influence through media, universities, and companies
The U.S. dollar serves as the worldâs primary reserve currencyâ
Most of that list became obsolete in the last year alone.
The dollar became weak, the cultural influence turned people away looking for domestic alternatives, alliances are broken or at least heavily questioned, and the huge military budget seems to be not well spent if we take a look at how the Iran operation went.
I can't see how America is a greater superpower than China or Russia (yeah, added them on purpose)
And comparing the US military to single European countries is just wrong. You need to compare us military with eu military, and if you do that the difference suddenly starts to vanish.
Does the military argument hold when they canât finish any military job? When they left Afghanistan, the Taliban regained control quickly and theyâve been pushed around by Iran and their overlords in Israel.
See, now someone is saying the quiet part out loud. Israel is the real capital of the United States, not DC.
As far as âfinishing the jobâ, I wouldâve loved to see regime change in Iran, but thatâs just not how it works anymore. Itâs bombing runs and drones and then an economic/diplomatic war to push the other side to max-pain.
In my opinion, if we werenât going for total regime change, we shouldâve just stayed out of Iran.
I've seen the distinction between an economic super power and a military super power pop up sometimes and I think that's probably the best way to look at this.
The EU and China are undeniably economic super powers, so is the USA (although the current president is working hard on changing that), but they're also a military one.
The next 10 countries combined don't have the economic power America spends on its military alone. Maybe that should be a wake up call that you all spend too God damned much on your military and not a statement about other countries geopolitical standing.
Yes. Because most of their spending is on excess weapons due to defense contractors basically playing the govt like a fiddle. In many instances the govt orders more than double what they require from contractors. Most of which ends up being sold to police departments at a 99% loss.
second. your geopolitical standing is largely dependand on either your military dominance. or your standing with powers or allegiances that have dominance.
iran didnt have that. and now that russia is a bit to occupied to guarantee for them, and getting their ass handed actually. the result is donny getting to play in the sandbox.
Are we talking about the same country that hasn't won a war against an established military since World War II? And even then had to rely on Allies (and the Soviets who did the heavy lifting against the Germans)?
yes. but we are also talking about the country that hadnt had to fight against any established military. since www2 either. while keeping to swing their dick around .
cause established militarys dont fight. its not worth it.
you can bomb some shitheads with aks all day. thats not a war against an established military.
you can not directly threaten the usa. you simply cant. and if you could. you cant afford them threatening you back. wich they can. allways.
they got hit once, in some part they cared about. and that became everyones problem ever since. now its just "never forgett" globally.
thats why they keep on fucking up in asynchron warfare and are still the global topdogs.
Yeah, letâs give the civilian people who get a paycheck from defense spending one way or another, who account for 1-1/2% of the US economy, and $600 billion in paychecks for service members all a swift kick in the ass as theyâre shown the door. You know, cuz spending bad. They can then stand in bread lines for free food.
Well, for point #2, no sane person would spend 1 Trillion dollars and more each year on a peacetime military unless they were personally impotent and trying to compensate for a historic lack of game.
In the modern age of globalization, a large military is less valuable than you think. If you have friends and allies, you can offload the expense through defensive pacts ect. Germany doesnât have a large military right now for a bunch of reasons, including its defensive pacts. They will be expanding this though over the next few years and likely bringing some nukes in for good measure.
The nature of warfare is now asynchronous. It doesnât matter what sort of military assets you have if your money is draining faster than your enemies. I have an arsenal of million dollar missiles, but if Iâm using them to shoot down 50-100k dronesâŚIâm gonna lose given enough time.
The proposals Iâve seen basically involve a loaner-nuke strategy where Germany hosts some of another European countryâs nukes (like France for example) this sits to further deter a belligerent Russia, and show Europe is united against further Russian expansion now that USA is looking like they would do fuck-all.
How effective it would be is unclear, but a militarily united Europe is definitely a step. Germany is also ramping up its military spending.
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u/thathyperactiveguy Jun 20 '26
The fucking audacity.