Tag Archives: Armed forces

Individually, and by the numbers, yes.

Russia will always need to maintain a good-sized army and air force regardless of whether it is peaceful or belligerent towards its neighbors. Russia is twice as populous as the next-largest European nation and sustains a large army through conscription, using it to maintain the security of a vast stretch of northern Eurasia. The road and rail link between Saint Petersburg and Vladivostok is six thousand miles long and follows a strategic population corridor that borders on Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China for most of that distance. While the bulk of Russian military forces are based in European Russia, its rail transport system is as vital to the Russian Federation’s security as it was to tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union.

Beyond Russia’s security needs, Europe other then Russia or the former Yugoslavia has been peaceful for the last seventy-seven years. Most of the nations of Europe are part of the defensive alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Because the NATO nations have almost no military rivalries with each other—there are a couple of minor ones in Southeastern Europe—none of the European members of the Alliance need to invest in large military forces.

Using the crudest statistical measure, Russia invests 4% of its GDP in military spending and most of the rest of Europe between 1% and 3%. Beyond that, NATO countries share the latest technological advances among themselves while Russia has to make do with its own research spending and what its extensive espionage networks can gather overseas. Russian per capita income ranks 33rd in Europe, its government is crippled by corruption, and the logistical infrastructure for its army, navy, and air forces are considered inadequate. Its core regular forces are as dangerous as any in the world, but the resources supporting them are questionable.

If Russia had the option of confronting or engaging only one European nation at a time, it would be a very intimidating opponent. However, the combined NATO forces in Europe are roughly three times as powerful as the Russia military. That advantage would be doubled if the two NATO members in North America, the United States and Canada, mobilized to support their European allies. This is why most of Europe is part of NATO.