Many of these countries receive financial aid, and then go on to build massive armies and buy jet aircraft etc. .......... does nobody find this sickening?
That is the point of financial aid. The UK (for example) invests in the Indian space programme, and the Indian government buys aerospace equipment from BAE Systems, a UK-based company, which creates jobs in the UK. It's not us altruistically giving money to help poorer nations because we're nice, it's investment in overseas markets which increases opportunities for the UK. The same applies elsewhere.
Great idea but it doesn't really work. UK are the 17th greatest exporters to India. Even a country such as Belgium (1/6th the size of UK) exports more to India and they don't give umpteen millions in aid to India to get the benefit.
Please accept Republic of China for "Taiwan" There is no country on Earth that calls itself Taiwan. There might be a Republic of Taiwan in the future but there isn't one yet. As of now Taiwan is a geographic location but it is technically not a political one.
This has nothing to do with communist brainwashing, it's just a pointless technicality. It's like saying "there's no country called South Korea" because the official name is not South Korea.
First quiz I think that I have got above average score on. Certainly wouldnt have guessed it would have been this one of all of them. Any where there are a few usa-based questions/answers then I will be lower than average.
Thank you questionmaster for updating it too!
I have to agree with the others about myanmar. Finally it has been updated.
Only missed two. I was going to guess Sri Lanka, but then second guessed myself and didn't think it would be on here. I don't know why I didn't think to guess Syria though.
Can someone explain why Japan can have 250,000 soldiers when the 9th article of the Japanese Constitution forbids it? Also, is China such a big threat to Japan that they need so many soldiers?
As far as I understand it, their army is purely for defence and that is allowed. The military may be used in law and order, disaster response and as a form of welfare giving youth some training and discipline...
And yes, China is threatening the stability of east Asia
This has been an interesting subject to me; it is rather misleading to discount paramilitary forces. Japan for example has quite small paramilitary forces, so presumably the military takes on tasks which in other countries it might not. Italy on the other hand has military forces that are not small by European standards but also has a large paramilitary force (Carabinieri) which in the eventuality might well be deployed to a war zone in a way that another country's paramilitary would not (but then perhaps Italy's 'civilian' police forces are correspondingly smaller). Having said that, both these countries attempt to avoid doing any such thing, and sometimes it is hard to argue that they are wrong.
This quiz says it was updated January 2018 but it appears that Sudan's listed active military is still combining Sudan and South Sudan's military numbers. South Sudan has 185,000 active while Sudan only has 104,300.
Just created a similar quiz looking at the countries with the most active military troops per capita (https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/108298/countries-with-the-most-military-troops-per-capita). Makes for a much different list, though with a couple countries that cross over.
The sri lankian govt has been fightning the tamil tigers for decades. they also are close to several massive military nations with indonesia, burma, india, pakistan and iran.
Because Sri Lanka had an active war zone against the LTTE Terrorists in the northern part of the island for over 30 years, which ended in 2007. This meant that military recruitment was over the roof to account for the losses in active duty and to overpower the terrorist strongholds. To their credit it worked, and by the time the leader of the LTTE was killed in 2007 the LTTE cause was pretty much finished.
Only by the time the war was won by the government forces the military was such a juggernaut and the public propoganda was so effective that the army never stopped growing in size. Now thirteen years after the war has ended the military is still getting stronger and larger every year.
Wholeheartedly surprised that Palau isn't on this list. What happens when the strong Tuvalu military comes and attacks them. The Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands should be afraid!
Fun quiz. I had always thought DPRK was top, maybe that was percentage of population perhaps. Had to really think about some of these so was a nice challenge. Thank you.
Well, No one can easily attack Bangladesh except India,and Bangladesh can't match Indian army Even spending 100% of Their GDP.Also India is friendly toward Bangladesh. So Bangladesh Govt. is not so focused on their military.
No European countries on here. Even if you summed up ALL of the European nations that are part of NATO, they would still be 3rd on the list. Double the population of the USA and about equal military personnel, with Russia breathing down their necks. Only 5 of these European NATO nations meet their 2% commitment on defense. Maybe it's time to get those numbers up.
Thank you questionmaster for updating it too!
I have to agree with the others about myanmar. Finally it has been updated.
Monaco has 121 soldiers per km2, even though they only have 255 soldiers...
And yes, China is threatening the stability of east Asia
Only by the time the war was won by the government forces the military was such a juggernaut and the public propoganda was so effective that the army never stopped growing in size. Now thirteen years after the war has ended the military is still getting stronger and larger every year.
In the thumbnail you can see a picture of
Mao Tse Tung who is former chairman of china indicating China as one of the answers most likely