The UK is well below France in military capability. Too dependent on the US, whereas France explicitly rejected that and develops its own weapons.
Putin would agree with you on this "a small island no one listens to.”
Though Trump would probably say that France, UK, and the rest of Nato are too dependent on USA's military.
I'm not sure France would manage much better without US military backing. France (along with the UK & Israel) during the Suez Crisis folded like a lawn chair when the US refused to back them!
GDP comparisons don't matter for this.
Economic power doesn't matter. I must have missed that memo!
I think ultimately like many things perception of something is more important then the reality. The UK (and France) are perceived to be powerful regardless of whether they are. "Based on a survey that asked more than 20,000 people from four regions to associate 73 countries with specific attributes," the UK was ranked 5th and France 6th.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/power-rankings
However I don't think the inclusion of possibly no longer relevant global powers on the UN security council as permanent members is its biggest problem. It is the use of vetos. It feels like it never achieves anything, as resolutions are constantly vetoed (particularly by the US & Russia).
Uhm, the US is entering international pariah territory here:
This is all part of Trumps master plan when it comes to foreign policy. "America First." So far it has managed to alienate most of the USA's major allies, and needlessly antagonized Iran. Personally I think the deal Obama struck with Iran was a decent one (though I could be wrong). However Trumps reason for being against it seems to be part of his hatred of Obama, where he has tried to undo everything Obama did (and with the exception of the ACA has been largely successful).
Still at least by focusing on the US to the detriment of its allies, and by trying to stay out of foreign conflicts (the latter probably a good thing), we have been able to start to reduce the absurd amount we spend on the military. Oh wait, no we haven't, under Trump we increased military spending, because Trump thinks pumping ever more billions of dollars into it is the ultimate sign of patriotism! We're spending more on defense than China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil - combined!
https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison
I can see the 2020 USA elections are first in everyone's minds. After that convention, we probably need to wake up some viewers.
J
I feel bad. I went so off topic, I ruined onejawhawks fortnightly increasingly desperate assertions that Trump will win the election.
