What is the greatest Middle Eastern military power?

[tranquilium]

Whoa kid, you're getting ahead of yourself don't you think? You just got internet connected to your yurt yesterday and now you think you can trace IPs? I remember in middle school when kids ran around yelling and threatening to hack each other with their 56k connections - they would be embarrassed now if I reminded them of their childhood tantrums. But I guess some standards of behavior are slow to diffuse across to the nomadic parts of the world .

BTW, tracing IPs is not such a technically simply affair. It's more difficult than roasting a kebab for example. You might get extradited by the CIA to Guantanamo Bay for supporting terrorism, and when you do, you can ask them how they traced your IP to locate you. Good luck .

Ah...middle school, to be young and stupid. Good times. I honestly thought I could invent a perpetual motion machine back then and I am glad internet isn't common back in the day because some of the stuff I wrote back then would embarrass me to death.

Regarding to that guy's rather erratic jumping of topics, it is pretty common among trolls. Mostly because making exclaim is easy and backing it up with proper evidence is way harder.

 

[tranquilium]

I will put Israel at first, since the moment Israel has any conflict with any other one in the middle east, U.S. will drop the other so-called allies like flies.

As for turkey, nato, eu, u.s. do not trust turkey completely at all. So don't expect u.s. send any help if turkey has conflict with Israel. At the same time, Israel will get all the weapons and supports from U.S.

As for others, they are even worse and ill equipped.

Like I said, it is a rather complicated question on which nation has the greatest military in middle east. Israel certainly doesn't have the best economy, population or land (heck, it is barely bigger than Beijing has about 1/3 of the population), but due to its strategic significance for US, other middle eastern countries would have a really tough time fighting it despite they maybe stronger.

 

[Raphael]

Stop acting like a victim like you always do. You came here to troll and you got what you deserve. If you go to first reply you posted towards me you were trolling that Turkey could nothing do but appease and be a pawn. If you didn't troll like that I wouldn't have humiliated you like this.

I never said this. I said Turkey has appropriate retaliation that can cause Israel equal or more destruction. Israel is not far away. Nobody will benefit from mutual destruction. Is that not answer enough? And more importantly war between Turkey and Israel will never happen because we are key allies in the region that will normalize relations soon. We don't have serious issues.

Because you came here to troll you don't read my comments. That is the problem.

By the way, I won't answer all the off topic you packaged in your post. Going off topic much? You started going off topic, if I go off topic and humiliate you because I don't see you more than a sweat shop worker or apple store worker don't go in the corner crying. I don't want my workers to have such a big mouth towards me. If you don't generate dividend for me, what use are you?

Lol, listen to yourself sobbing about how others are 'trolling' you. If you didn't want others to be blunt and tell you what a pawn your tribe is, and how servile your tribal foreign policy is, then maybe you shouldn't have run your mouth with your ludicrous claims. I'm sure even in nomadic societies, there is some concept of 'quid pro quo'. Anyway, you indeed said that your tribe could avoid getting nuked, in post #60

When war erupts Turkey will already have maneuvered their troops that Israel can't use nuclear weapons against them.

30 posts later, after you threw tantrum after tantrum, you still can't justify this claim.

And about this new claim you made: you evidently haven't learned your lesson about spurious claims. How can your tribe retaliate? You have no nukes. Your conventional forces would have to cross two countries to get to Israel, and that's without mentioning how Israeli forces could wipe the floor with them. The reality is you have no deterrence against them. As a part of NATO, you might think you can call on your sugar daddy the USA. But do you really think your sugar daddy will help you against their favorite child, Israel, in favor of their cheapest, most expendable pawn? I realize nomads have no concept of history, but I can help educate you. In 1962 during the Cuban Missiles Crisis, the USA and USSR played a game of nuclear poker. The USA ante'd up you as their nuclear collateral and stationed missiles in your country. Your tribe could have ended up as a nuclear crater, but fortunately for you, the game defused before it reached this extent. Make sure you give your sacrificial offerings to your sky god for this stroke of luck.

Anyway, I noticed you changed your terminology from "formal allies" to "key allies". I understand written language is a new concept for you, and you're having trouble adjusting to the nuances of words that could cause you to misrepresent what you want to express. You are forgiven. For the record, I don't think countries whose relations are characterized by the kind of diplomatic spats seen between Turkey and Israel could possibly be described as "key allies". But I'm glad you backtracked from "formal allies", which is factually unjustifiable. See, you're making an improvement, and you even managed to stay on topic this time. Jean-Jacques Rosseau wrote about the "noble savage" and their supposed virtues over civilized people. I'm not really a fan of his theory, but from observing you, I do think the noble savage can make big strides towards adopting the customs of civilization. Don't disappoint us kid .

 

[Falcon29]

Like I said, it is a rather complicated question on which nation has the greatest military in middle east. Israel certainly doesn't have the best economy, population or land (heck, it is barely bigger than Beijing has about 1/3 of the population), but due to its strategic significance for US, other middle eastern countries would have a really tough time fighting it despite they maybe stronger.

I've always wanted to know what's so strategically significant about Israel that the US finds so important?

 

[tranquilium]

I've always wanted to know what's so strategically significant about Israel that the US finds so important?

Okay, the full explanation is a bit long, so bear with me (BTW, if you understand the concept of Petro Dollar, you can skip a few paragraphs):

The first concept we need to cover is the modern concept of currency. Unlike the ancient times, modern currency is not based on valuable metal. This means the currency itself has no economic value and their value comes from credit of the publisher of the currency. Now, this "credit" isn't something like good reputation, niceness, etc. The creditability of a currency comes from the assumption that by using this currency, you can purchase the material you require, be it food, ore, machines or energy products like petroleum. Let's have an example of how this works, say country A produces milk and sells it to other countries. Country A also requires ten baskets of eggs and need to buy it from somewhere else. Country B says "Hey, can I give you this promise notes that I wrote for your milk? You can use the note to eggs from me." Country B has lots of hens, so Country A knows country B has eggs and he can use the note to get eggs. As a result, country A accept the promise notes, which is known as currency. Now, in order for country A to keep accepting currency from country B, country B has to keep a large numbers of hens, because otherwise country B's ability to provide the eggs are put in doubt and the promise note lose its value. This is known as the most basic form of currency depreciation. (There are many more complicated case, but it will take too much time to cover them here)

The next concept we are going to cover is Petro Dollar or more specific, United Dollar which the credibility of the currency is backed up by the assumption that using USD allows the buyer to purchase petroleum. USA became the largest industrial nation on the planet in 1895. In the 115 years following that, USA produces the more consumer goods than any other country in the world until China took the title as the largest industrial nation in 2010. Basically, people gradually started to use USD as global currency after 1900 because it was understand that by using USD, they can buy the products they need. This is especially true in WWI where US provided war material for the European nations. After WWII, European nations are in tatters and with the only other major industrial nation (USSR) on the other side of the iron curtain, US is by far the largest industrial power in the western world and its currency become the dominant currency in the trade network. (It is more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it)

Now, the system back in the day is known as the gold standard. Basically, currency is backup by the gold reserve of the nation which is in turn backed up by trading of the physical goods, ie, industrial products. However, as US financial system continue to develop, it begin to outpace the growth of its industrial production. Basically, the goods produced by US industry is no longer sufficient to back up the value of the US currency. So one of the fundamental change Reagan made to the US financial system is moving away from gold standard and instead to today's credit base system. This decoupled the currency with physical goods and allows additional currencies to be published even though the country doesn't the physical goods to back it up. However, even under the new system, the currency still fundamentally require something to guarantee its value and petroleum being the life blood of modern industry, is this guarantee.

Don't get me wrong, US is a large country and has quite a bit petroleum reserves, but it is by no means the largest petroleum reserve in the world and in fact, not even the top 10. This is where middle east comes in. Middle East collectively contains very large reserves and if this petroleum supply can be used to guarantee the credibility of dollar, then it will stay up nicely even without support from US industry. However, there is a problem. Middle Eastern nations are not US colonies. They are not US neighbors and while militarily weaker than US, actual annexation is not possible due to the presence of other major nations and the sheer distance. So what is the solution? The answer is Israel.

Israel is NOT set up by US. The actual independence of Israel is facilitated by the British empire, though it is perfectly possible that the British has similar things in mind. In fact, Israel, from the start up, is setup similar to Pakistan and India. The goal is simple, by inserting a state by completely different religious and ethnicity group into a region that is mainly dominated by another religion and racial group. The result is essentially a perpetual conflict between these states and preventing all chance for peace and unity. This conflict also serves to weaken both parties and forces them to depend on foreign powers to maintain the status quo. Indeed, after the founding of Israel, it immediately caused large number of conflicts between a Jewish/Judaism states and the neighboring Arabic/Islamic states. Due to its small size, Israel is entirely dependent on western aid to survive. The Islamic states really didn't come off the ordeal any better. In order to compete with an Israel armed with US/European weapons, the other middle eastern states are also forced to depend on foreign powers to survive. Perhaps the most significant event among all these is Nixon's deal in 1971 with Saudi Arabia. Which Saudi Arabia agrees to settle business only using US dollar in exchange for US weapons and protection. (That's another long story, with additional deals with China, Pakistan and a number of intermediate range ballistic missile and rumored nuclear warheads, sufficient to say there is a reason Saudi Arabia has enjoyed a long period of peace after the 70s).

I am getting a bit off topic, but the gist of the story is that Israel's strategic significance in middle east is that it is a rather sharp thorn to the Middle Eastern nations. It is made tough enough that middle eastern countries can't pull it out and made painful enough that middle eastern country can't move away from the drug that dulls the pain (using US dollar). There is speculation that the true reason behind the 2003 Iraq invasion is that Iraq is trying to switch from petrodollar to Euro. The same thing applies to Mubarak of Egypt who tried to form an African economy zone with its own currency. Of course, Iran's sanction is quite understandable because after the destruction of Iraq in the first gulf war, it is pretty much the only industrial nation left in the Middle East that is strong enough to move away from USD.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

Okay, the full explanation is a bit long, so bear with me (BTW, if you understand the concept of Petro Dollar, you can skip a few paragraphs):

The first concept we need to cover is the modern concept of currency. Unlike the ancient times, modern currency is not based on valuable metal. This means the currency itself has no economic value and their value comes from credit of the publisher of the currency. Now, this "credit" isn't something like good reputation, niceness, etc. The creditability of a currency comes from the assumption that by using this currency, you can purchase the material you require, be it food, ore, machines or energy products like petroleum. Let's have an example of how this works, say country A produces milk and sells it to other countries. Country A also requires ten baskets of eggs and need to buy it from somewhere else. Country B says "Hey, can I give you this promise notes that I wrote for your milk? You can use the note to eggs from me." Country B has lots of hens, so Country A knows country B has eggs and he can use the note to get eggs. As a result, country A accept the promise notes, which is known as currency. Now, in order for country A to keep accepting currency from country B, country B has to keep a large numbers of hens, because otherwise country B's ability to provide the eggs are put in doubt and the promise note lose its value. This is known as the most basic form of currency depreciation. (There are many more complicated case, but it will take too much time to cover them here)

The next concept we are going to cover is Petro Dollar or more specific, United Dollar which the credibility of the currency is backed up by the assumption that using USD allows the buyer to purchase petroleum. USA became the largest industrial nation on the planet in 1895. In the 115 years following that, USA produces the more consumer goods than any other country in the world until China took the title as the largest industrial nation in 2010. Basically, people gradually started to use USD as global currency after 1900 because it was understand that by using USD, they can buy the products they need. This is especially true in WWI where US provided war material for the European nations. After WWII, European nations are in tatters and with the only other major industrial nation (USSR) on the other side of the iron curtain, US is by far the largest industrial power in the western world and its currency become the dominant currency in the trade network. (It is more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it)

Now, the system back in the day is known as the gold standard. Basically, currency is backup by the gold reserve of the nation which is in turn backed up by trading of the physical goods, ie, industrial products. However, as US financial system continue to develop, it begin to outpace the growth of its industrial production. Basically, the goods produced by US industry is no longer sufficient to back up the value of the US currency. So one of the fundamental change Reagan made to the US financial system is moving away from gold standard and instead to today's credit base system. This decoupled the currency with physical goods and allows additional currencies to be published even though the country doesn't the physical goods to back it up. However, even under the new system, the currency still fundamentally require something to guarantee its value and petroleum being the life blood of modern industry, is this guarantee.

Don't get me wrong, US is a large country and has quite a bit petroleum reserves, but it is by no means the largest petroleum reserve in the world and in fact, not even the top 10. This is where middle east comes in. Middle East collectively contains very large reserves and if this petroleum supply can be used to guarantee the credibility of dollar, then it will stay up nicely even without support from US industry. However, there is a problem. Middle Eastern nations are not US colonies. They are not US neighbors and while militarily weaker than US, actual annexation is not possible due to the presence of other major nations and the sheer distance. So what is the solution? The answer is Israel.

Israel is NOT set up by US. The actual independence of Israel is facilitated by the British empire, though it is perfectly possible that the British has similar things in mind. In fact, Israel, from the start up, is setup similar to Pakistan and India. The goal is simple, by inserting a state by completely different religious and ethnicity group into a region that is mainly dominated by another religion and racial group. The result is essentially a perpetual conflict between these states and preventing all chance for peace and unity. This conflict also serves to weaken both parties and forces them to depend on foreign powers to maintain the status quo. Indeed, after the founding of Israel, it immediately caused large number of conflicts between a Jewish/Judaism states and the neighboring Arabic/Islamic states. Due to its small size, Israel is entirely dependent on western aid to survive. The Islamic states really didn't come off the ordeal any better. In order to compete with an Israel armed with US/European weapons, the other middle eastern states are also forced to depend on foreign powers to survive. Perhaps the most significant event among all these is Nixon's deal in 1971 with Saudi Arabia. Which Saudi Arabia agrees to settle business only using US dollar in exchange for US weapons and protection. (That's another long story, with additional deals with China, Pakistan and a number of intermediate range ballistic missile and rumored nuclear warheads, sufficient to say there is a reason Saudi Arabia has enjoyed a long period of peace after the 70s).

I am getting a bit off topic, but the gist of the story is that Israel's strategic significance in middle east is that it is a rather sharp thorn to the Middle Eastern nations. It is made tough enough that middle eastern countries can't pull it out and made painful enough that middle eastern country can't move away from the drug that dulls the pain (using US dollar). There is speculation that the true reason behind the 2003 Iraq invasion is that Iraq is trying to switch from petrodollar to Euro. The same thing applies to Mubarak of Egypt who tried to form an African economy zone with its own currency. Of course, Iran's sanction is quite understandable because after the destruction of Iraq in the first gulf war, it is pretty much the only industrial nation left in the Middle East that is strong enough to move away from USD.

What? First, it was Nixon who ended Bretton Woods by ending convertibility between the dollar and gold, not Reagan. Second, nothing backs the purchasing power of the dollar (and every other free-floating currency) except for the full faith and credit of the issuing government. That is, the dollar's value stems from the fiscal credibility of the government. Governments that mismanage their finances lose credibility and cause hyperinflation--see the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe.

The petrodollar is simply a system by which all oil prices are set, and trades are settled, in USD. It is maintained by convenience and tradition, since the USD serves as the primary reserve currency. That said, we increasingly see countries settle trade in other major currencies (EUR, RMB) to bypass this system. Iran has even used the gold trade to bypass the dollar. Israel has nothing to do with the petrodollar or the oil trade.

 

[Falcon29]

Okay, the full explanation is a bit long, so bear with me (BTW, if you understand the concept of Petro Dollar, you can skip a few paragraphs):

The first concept we need to cover is the modern concept of currency. Unlike the ancient times, modern currency is not based on valuable metal. This means the currency itself has no economic value and their value comes from credit of the publisher of the currency. Now, this "credit" isn't something like good reputation, niceness, etc. The creditability of a currency comes from the assumption that by using this currency, you can purchase the material you require, be it food, ore, machines or energy products like petroleum. Let's have an example of how this works, say country A produces milk and sells it to other countries. Country A also requires ten baskets of eggs and need to buy it from somewhere else. Country B says "Hey, can I give you this promise notes that I wrote for your milk? You can use the note to eggs from me." Country B has lots of hens, so Country A knows country B has eggs and he can use the note to get eggs. As a result, country A accept the promise notes, which is known as currency. Now, in order for country A to keep accepting currency from country B, country B has to keep a large numbers of hens, because otherwise country B's ability to provide the eggs are put in doubt and the promise note lose its value. This is known as the most basic form of currency depreciation. (There are many more complicated case, but it will take too much time to cover them here)

The next concept we are going to cover is Petro Dollar or more specific, United Dollar which the credibility of the currency is backed up by the assumption that using USD allows the buyer to purchase petroleum. USA became the largest industrial nation on the planet in 1895. In the 115 years following that, USA produces the more consumer goods than any other country in the world until China took the title as the largest industrial nation in 2010. Basically, people gradually started to use USD as global currency after 1900 because it was understand that by using USD, they can buy the products they need. This is especially true in WWI where US provided war material for the European nations. After WWII, European nations are in tatters and with the only other major industrial nation (USSR) on the other side of the iron curtain, US is by far the largest industrial power in the western world and its currency become the dominant currency in the trade network. (It is more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it)

Now, the system back in the day is known as the gold standard. Basically, currency is backup by the gold reserve of the nation which is in turn backed up by trading of the physical goods, ie, industrial products. However, as US financial system continue to develop, it begin to outpace the growth of its industrial production. Basically, the goods produced by US industry is no longer sufficient to back up the value of the US currency. So one of the fundamental change Reagan made to the US financial system is moving away from gold standard and instead to today's credit base system. This decoupled the currency with physical goods and allows additional currencies to be published even though the country doesn't the physical goods to back it up. However, even under the new system, the currency still fundamentally require something to guarantee its value and petroleum being the life blood of modern industry, is this guarantee.

Don't get me wrong, US is a large country and has quite a bit petroleum reserves, but it is by no means the largest petroleum reserve in the world and in fact, not even the top 10. This is where middle east comes in. Middle East collectively contains very large reserves and if this petroleum supply can be used to guarantee the credibility of dollar, then it will stay up nicely even without support from US industry. However, there is a problem. Middle Eastern nations are not US colonies. They are not US neighbors and while militarily weaker than US, actual annexation is not possible due to the presence of other major nations and the sheer distance. So what is the solution? The answer is Israel.

Israel is NOT set up by US. The actual independence of Israel is facilitated by the British empire, though it is perfectly possible that the British has similar things in mind. In fact, Israel, from the start up, is setup similar to Pakistan and India. The goal is simple, by inserting a state by completely different religious and ethnicity group into a region that is mainly dominated by another religion and racial group. The result is essentially a perpetual conflict between these states and preventing all chance for peace and unity. This conflict also serves to weaken both parties and forces them to depend on foreign powers to maintain the status quo. Indeed, after the founding of Israel, it immediately caused large number of conflicts between a Jewish/Judaism states and the neighboring Arabic/Islamic states. Due to its small size, Israel is entirely dependent on western aid to survive. The Islamic states really didn't come off the ordeal any better. In order to compete with an Israel armed with US/European weapons, the other middle eastern states are also forced to depend on foreign powers to survive. Perhaps the most significant event among all these is Nixon's deal in 1971 with Saudi Arabia. Which Saudi Arabia agrees to settle business only using US dollar in exchange for US weapons and protection. (That's another long story, with additional deals with China, Pakistan and a number of intermediate range ballistic missile and rumored nuclear warheads, sufficient to say there is a reason Saudi Arabia has enjoyed a long period of peace after the 70s).

I am getting a bit off topic, but the gist of the story is that Israel's strategic significance in middle east is that it is a rather sharp thorn to the Middle Eastern nations. It is made tough enough that middle eastern countries can't pull it out and made painful enough that middle eastern country can't move away from the drug that dulls the pain (using US dollar). There is speculation that the true reason behind the 2003 Iraq invasion is that Iraq is trying to switch from petrodollar to Euro. The same thing applies to Mubarak of Egypt who tried to form an African economy zone with its own currency. Of course, Iran's sanction is quite understandable because after the destruction of Iraq in the first gulf war, it is pretty much the only industrial nation left in the Middle East that is strong enough to move away from USD.

Thanks for the explanation, I mostly understood this concept but not in detail. The next question is how this could be put to an end? What will change it?

 

[Jlaw]

Thanks for the explanation, I mostly understood this concept but not in detail. The next question is how this could be put to an end? What will change it?

Any country that can defeat the American military will be the new reserve currency.

 

[tranquilium]

Thanks for the explanation, I mostly understood this concept but not in detail. The next question is how this could be put to an end? What will change it?

Short answer is I don't know. The long answer is that are potential methods and all of them are difficult enough that I don't know if it will work.

First of all, you need to understand that Israel is symptom, not the problem. (The same applies to Japan or Philippine in East Asia really) If it not Israel, then there are still plenty of other groups that can be used for the exact same purpose and in exact same manner. Middle East has a rich culture legacy and as a side effect of that plenty of groups with an axe to grind, so there is no shortage of candidates.

In my personal opinion, the fundamental problem with Middle Eastern nation is that they are divided. Like I said earlier, at the end of day, Israel is a 7 million population nation with a land mass smaller than Beijing. If the Middle East really did have a first or close to first class world power, it would squish Israel regardless how much assistance US or Europe can throw at it. Divided, however, you get picked off one by one and played against each other and foreign powers can watching the show and taking advantage of you. The Chinese knows this well, because this is pretty much what happened to us barely a century ago.

Basically, if you don't want to be played as pawns, the only thing to do it is to be strong enough and become a player yourself.

Of course, this is way easier said than done. Let's examine some of the very basic stuff you need to become a world power:

Population and land. You need a lot of them in both category. All the present major powers possess very large territory and population or at least possess them recently. (The biggest reason UK's influence is declining is because it lost its colonies, thus most of its population and territory. France went through the same thing, but EU helps counter this effect. This is why France and Germany are the most adamant supporter of EU despite the other countries are bringing their economic trouble to them. Well, Germans have other reasons and has to do with its post war status, but that's another long story, check my posts regarding to Plaza accord and I should have explained it in the past) Middle East has decent sized countries, but it is nowhere near the bare minimum for large nations. In fact, India would have barely qualified in the large territory section and it is more the three million square km.

You will also need infrastructure and education. Iraq and Iran used to have some of it, though both countries suffered quite a bit in the past two decades, Iran suffered a lot of sanctions and Iraq got destroyed by war. Turkey also has some, but again, all these doesn't quite reach the minimum threshold because these educated people and infrastructure are divided by national borders, religious and racial conflicts. Speaking of minimum threshold. China went through similar sanction as Iran. China endured at the end and actually benefit from it by forming an internal supply chain and industrial base that is fully capable of operating without any foreign assistance and this became one of the most powerful competitive edge China has, but all these are only possible because China's large territory and population. This should reinforce my point above, you need large territory and population for your own industry to fully manifest.

The points above are really the bare minimum you need in order to have any hope to become a major nation. This is why I consider India to have a better chance to become a world class power than Japan even though Japan has much larger economy, better education and more infrastructure. Japan simply doesn't have the territory size to do it and India at least have the potential.

As for middle eastern nations, I have no idea what should be done to obtain these minimums. I am an engineer, not an experienced politician, so I can only list the hard facts. The rest is really up to you guys.

 

[Jlaw]

Short answer is I don't know. The long answer is that are potential methods and all of them are difficult enough that I don't know if it will work.

First of all, you need to understand that Israel is symptom, not the problem. (The same applies to Japan or Philippine in East Asia really) If it not Israel, then there are still plenty of other groups that can be used for the exact same purpose and in exact same manner. Middle East has a rich culture legacy and as a side effect of that plenty of groups with an axe to grind, so there is no shortage of candidates.

In my personal opinion, the fundamental problem with Middle Eastern nation is that they are divided. Like I said earlier, at the end of day, Israel is a 7 million population nation with a land mass smaller than Beijing. If the Middle East really did have a first or close to first class world power, it would squish Israel regardless how much assistance US or Europe can throw at it. Divided, however, you get picked off one by one and played against each other and foreign powers can watching the show and taking advantage of you. The Chinese knows this well, because this is pretty much what happened to us barely a century ago.

Basically, if you don't want to be played as pawns, the only thing to do it is to be strong enough and become a player yourself.

Of course, this is way easier said than done. Let's examine some of the very basic stuff you need to become a world power:

Population and land. You need a lot of them in both category. All the present major powers possess very large territory and population or at least possess them recently. (The biggest reason UK's influence is declining is because it lost its colonies, thus most of its population and territory. France went through the same thing, but EU helps counter this effect. This is why France and Germany are the most adamant supporter of EU despite the other countries are bringing their economic trouble to them. Well, Germans have other reasons and has to do with its post war status, but that's another long story, check my posts regarding to Plaza accord and I should have explained it in the past) Middle East has decent sized countries, but it is nowhere near the bare minimum for large nations. In fact, India would have barely qualified in the large territory section and it is more the three million square km.

You will also need infrastructure and education. Iraq and Iran used to have some of it, though both countries suffered quite a bit in the past two decades, Iran suffered a lot of sanctions and Iraq got destroyed by war. Turkey also has some, but again, all these doesn't quite reach the minimum threshold because these educated people and infrastructure are divided by national borders, religious and racial conflicts. Speaking of minimum threshold. China went through similar sanction as Iran. China endured at the end and actually benefit from it by forming an internal supply chain and industrial base that is fully capable of operating without any foreign assistance and this became one of the most powerful competitive edge China has, but all these are only possible because China's large territory and population. This should reinforce my point above, you need large territory and population for your own industry to fully manifest.

The points above are really the bare minimum you need in order to have any hope to become a major nation. This is why I consider India to have a better chance to become a world class power than Japan even though Japan has much larger economy, better education and more infrastructure. Japan simply doesn't have the territory size to do it and India at least have the potential.

As for middle eastern nations, I have no idea what should be done to obtain these minimums. I am an engineer, not an experienced politician, so I can only list the hard facts. The rest is really up to you guys.

The object you want to use as a currency is not as important as the ability to backup the currency with might.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

Any country that can defeat the American military will be the new reserve currency.

How does that work, exactly?

The truth is that the reserve currency will belong to the country that trades the largest volume, provided the currency is freely convertible. RMB would be the reserve currency if China allowed its currency to float freely, but since China's capital markets are still primitive and fragile, this won't happen soon.

 

[The SC]

I've always wanted to know what's so strategically significant about Israel that the US finds so important?

It is simple, USrael is a western (read NATO) military base in the heart of the middle east, the latter being the center of the world geographically, but most importantly it is the richest spot on earth for hydrocarbons (read OIL and GAS), plus it is the main hub for delivery of these resources to the West, which relies heavily on these resources for its economy. So, control over this area is of VITAL importance to the West's economy and thus its war machine to enforce its policies, if not to impose them by force...

 

[Jlaw]

How does that work, exactly?

The truth is that the reserve currency will belong to the country that trades the largest volume, provided the currency is freely convertible. RMB would be the reserve currency if China allowed its currency to float freely, but since China's capital markets are still primitive and fragile, this won't happen soon.

I will try using this. Assume you have super human abilities, like Superman. You can defeat all the combine world's military . You tell the world your currency, the LBO is the new world reserve currency with your mug on the new fiat currency. Who is going to say no to you? You will destroy and change regimes on countries who will not use your currency.

In summary, it primarily boils down to who has the greatest military in the world.

 

[tranquilium]

The object you want to use as a currency is not as important as the ability to backup the currency with might.

It is close enough. I would say that might is certainly required, but it is not the only thing required. How to apply the might and how to balance military, diplomatic and economic might is also important.

Take USSR for example, it has plenty of military might, but had a lot of trouble applying it. To its south sit China, which was not as powerful as USSR, but certainly powerful enough to make the fight not worth it. To its east sits US which is pretty much the same story, except with even more teeth than China. So it expanded westward and towards Afghanistan and got trapped there fighting an Afghanistan back by all four other UN permanent security council. If I wouldn't want to fight someone that is funded by France and UK, using Chinese gear and trained by US and I am pretty sure USSR regretted it as well.

Personally, I like China's approach in East and South Asia. A slow, but inevitable expansion with both military and economic advances works much better than pure brute force.

Sure, if you can defeat all other nations, then that's probably way quicker, but realistically, that is a very tall order.

 

[Falcon29]

Any country that can defeat the American military will be the new reserve currency.

Do you believe the balance of power will change in 15 years say? And does China have any interest in the Middle East from a military or political POV?