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In 2024, the country with the greatest military power is the United States, a founding country and member of NATO. Russia, China, and India, all three members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, complete the podium of military powers. In 2024, France was ranked ninth among armed powers, behind Great Britain (fifth rank). The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an institution officially grouping nine countries: Russia, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan. This organization prioritizes the economic development of member countries, as well as cooperation on security issues, ethnic or religious separatism, and the fight against terrorism.

Tensions between Russia and NATO intensify with the war in Ukraine led by Russia

At the Madrid summit held in June 2023, NATO agreed that Russia constituted the most significant and direct threat to its security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area. The brutal war that Russia, the world’s second military power, is waging in Ukraine shattered the peace that prevailed in Europe. Sweden and Finland also decided to join NATO in response to this Russian offensive, breaking with a long tradition of non-alignment. Deemed “brain dead” in 2019 by Emmanuel Macron, NATO is experiencing a revival in the face of Russian aggression. Washington remains by far the largest contributor to the organization, even though other member countries promised to increase their military budgets at the Madrid summit. While during his presidency, Trump repeatedly threatened to leave NATO, judging that Europeans did not meet their goal of * percent of their GDP for their military budgets, the United States now wants to strengthen NATO’s defense capabilities against Russia by reinforcing its military personnel in Poland and sending new military aircraft.

But countering Chinese military power also remains a priority for the United States

Beijing is perceived by Washington as a far more expansionist adversary than Moscow and more capable of disrupting global balances and exerting influence over emerging countries. After a visit to Taiwan in August 2022 by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Beijing intensified military exercises and conducted missile launches in the South China Sea. Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, reacted by calling China’s response a “total disproportion.” Along with his Japanese and Australian counterparts, he also issued a statement calling on China to stop its military exercises. The United States remains by far the world’s leading military power ahead of China: in 2021, it spent *** billion U.S. dollars on armaments compared to *** billion U.S. dollars for China.