Quote Originally Posted by Rodion Romanovich
Interesting article, but why are South Africa and Venezuela even on that list, they have 100 times less budget than USA, and 25 times smaller than China... Only USA and China have anything worth worrying about, possibly India too. But another interesting aspect that is also forgotten above is the future potential capability of defense spending. Western Europe could probably theoretically increase its military budget maybe 10 times for instance... And perhaps China could too... Who knows where the real danger are? And it also doesn't take into account North Korea's nukes, which makes them a greater danger even if they don't spend as much on regular weaponry.
It isnt how much they are spending, it is how much they are spending in relation to surrounding countries. China is a major threat for obvious reasons. At the moment, neighboring nations are also spending massive amounts of money on arms. This gives us both concern and solace as China can be contained regionally but are still creating an arms race that could lead to something terrible for everybody.

Venezuela is scary because their expenditures contrast with the low amounts of other South American nations. Coupled with his obvious agenda to revolutionize the continent and destabilize surrounding centrist or right wing governments, a relatively vast military plan is a very bad thing for regional stability. I think surrounding nations are starting to see this. It seems to me that Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador are forging some sort of military alliance while aggressively undermining government in places like Columbia, etc.