The combined total of Nato military personnel currently exceeds 5.4m – around four times as many as Russia, according to Statista.
In 2021, the United States had the largest number of military personnel out of all North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries, with 1.35 million troops.
Since 1949, NATO has increased its collective military power. Today it has the capability to count on nearly 3.5-million personnel, troops and civilian combined. Each member state agrees to contribute with different strategic weight and influence.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO; Russian: Организация Договора о коллективной безопасности, romanized: Organizatsiya Dogovora o kollektivnoy bezopasnosti; Russian: ОДКБ, romanized: ODKB) is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia.
The alliance has targeted deployments of their NATO Response Force in Eastern Europe, and the combined militaries of all NATO members include around 3.5 million soldiers and personnel. Their combined military spending as of 2020 constituted over 57 percent of the global nominal total.
The US dominates the air with far more bases, fighter jets and bombers than Russia but Russia is superior on the ground with more tanks, artillery and land vehicles. At sea, the countries are more evenly matched, but here the US has the edge with more destroyers, submarines and aircraft carriers.
As of 2022, there were estimated to be approximately 4,178 nuclear warheads belonging to three NATO allies, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.
The UN likely commands more global influence, but NATO, for example, is more powerful militarily. Inter-governmental organisations, such as the European Union, are hugely powerful globally.
In April this year, the four countries participated in NATO's foreign ministerial meeting and they agreed to continue supporting Ukraine and to step up cooperation given the "global implications" of Russia's war on Ukraine. Australia, Japan and South Korea are all U.S. security allies.
None are NATO members, but each is wary of China's growing influence and coercion. Since 2020, NATO has stepped up cooperation with the four Asian democracies, which it refers to as “Asia-Pacific partners."
The United States
With a budget of $738 billion and 1,388,000 men and women in the armed forces, it boasts an awe-inspiring 6,125 nuclear weapons, 11 aircraft carriers, 68 nuclear submarines, 3,761 military aircraft, 867 attack helicopters, 6,209 tanks and 113 warships.
The NATO Alliance consists of 30 member states from North America and Europe. Article Five of the treaty states that if an armed attack occurs against one of the member states, it should be considered an attack against all members, and other members shall assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary.
In terms of submarines, China just edges out Russia by 79 to 70. Russia maintains the upper hand in the air, boasting just over 4,000 aircraft to China's 3,200, according to Global Firepower, of which Russia had 739 dedicated attack aircraft to China's 371.
1. Russia (Overall ranking: 2)
China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are often referred to as great powers by academics due to "their political and economic dominance of the global arena". These five nations are the only states to have permanent seats with veto power on the UN Security Council.
On 10 March 1966, President Charles de Gaulle announced France was officially withdrawing from NATO. The country would no longer host any NATO bases. The SHAPE, or Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers of Europe, which is in charge of NATO military planning, was relocated from Paris to Brussels.
Greece. In 1964, due to the Cyprus crisis, Greece withdrew military units from NATO forces in the Southern Mediterranean, over threats of invasion of Cyprus by fellow NATO member Turkey. Later in 1974 due to the invasion of Cyprus by Turkish forces, Greece withdrew from NATO military command.
Plans for NATO membership were shelved by Ukraine following the 2010 presidential election in which Viktor Yanukovych, who preferred to keep the country non-aligned, was elected President.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, a coalition of countries – including many NATO Allies – militarily intervened in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001.
NATO has 5,040, 5,495 and 2,803 in comparison, but leads in battle tanks and armoured vehicles, with 14,682 and 115,855 respectively, to Russia's 12,420 and 30,122.
The U.S. Armed Forces are considered the world's most powerful military. The military budget of the United States was US$693 billion in 2019, the highest in the world.
Dr. Redlener identified six cities that have the greatest likelihood of being attacked: New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston. Only New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles' emergency management websites give ways to respond to a radioactive disaster.
Depending on its impact radius, even a Tsar bomb cannot destroy a whole country. Only a small country such as Vatican City or Monaco with land areas of 44 ha and 202 ha respectively can be completely destroyed using a nuclear weapon.
Nuclear weapons are a core component of NATO's overall capabilities for deterrence and defence, alongside conventional and missile defence forces. NATO is committed to arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, but as long as nuclear weapons exist, it will remain a nuclear alliance.