December 18, 2019

U.S. study names Russia the world's second most powerful nation

topic:	Good Governance
located:	USA, Russia
editor:	Igor Serebryany

Russia has been the most powerful country in the world in 2019, second only to the United States, the US News & World Report announced. 

According to the study, Russia has been ahead of China, Germany, Great Britain, France, Japan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

The study ranks 80 countries basing on the combination of their "hard" and "soft" power. The final results are calculated using a complicated formula, which includes military might, economic development as well as cultural heritage, situation with human rights, gender issues, religious and political freedom, environmental protection in the countries surveyed.

Russia earned its aggregated second place despite none of those factors separately (except for military might) are higher than those of its competitors in the top ten.

For instance, Russia holds 79th place in terms of business friendly environment (the last but one, ahead of Iran only). In terms of the overall quality of life, Russia has been in the 38th position (Canada and Japan share the first place).

Despite the study's findings contradict common sense, they are not unscientific, a professor in the Russian Foreign Ministry's Diplomatic Academy Vladimir Shtol says.

"The superpower status is sewed together from a large number of smaller pieces, like a mosaic set. Separately, some of those pieces could be unfavorable. Still, the overall picture might be positive", he explains.

Shtol cites Russia's retardedness in modern technologies compared to the US, Japan or Israel. However, Russian international policy has been more efficient than the international efforts of any of those countries.

"The conflict in Syria has demonstrated it clearly enough that it was Russia which played the leading role in that region", he says.

Shtol adds that modern mass media and information technologies might distort a country's actual role in global affairs.

"For example, in some country, a natural disaster happened and Russia delivered 15 loads of humanitarian cargo there. And the US delivered only one. However, the Russian relief operation was covered by the Rusia Today TV channel only, while the US efforts were reported by a hundred news agencies. That creates a false impression that the US has played a major role in the relief operation", the professor exemplifies.

He stresses that the place in the global ranking has very little to do with some everyday advantages for its citizens.

"Position in the ranking shows a country's 'brand recognition'. It could be either positive or negative, but that doesn't affect its place in the ranking", Shtol says.

The synergistic national power consists of a multitude of various components but the study published by the US News & World Report could hardly be given much credit, the president of the Institute of International Economy and World Affairs in the Russian Academy of Science Alexander Dynkin disagrees.

"First of all, the US News... has never been a serious analytical publication. It's a kind of infotainment magazine. Besides, no country is developing itself in full harmony. A country can show great achievements in economy and technology while lagging behind in human rights and environmental protection, like China. Or vice versa. So this is not surprising if the overall balance would tip to an unexpected side", he says.

Image: Benreis auf wikivoyage/CC BY-SA 3.0