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23 Most Powerful Countries in the World Heading Into 2023

Habib Ur Rehman
12 min read

In This Article:

In this article, we take a look at the 23 most powerful countries in the world heading into 2023. You can skip our detailed analysis of the global power dynamics and go directly to the 5 Most Powerful Countries in the World Heading Into 2023. 

People often think of a country’s military when it comes to its power and while it's true that military strength translates to raw power, there are many other dimensions of power as well that are required to capture its overall nuance. 

Economic strength is the second most important form of power in general and perhaps the most important form in our current world. Other dimensions include political power like close international alliances and diplomatic leverage.

Finally, there is something called soft power in terms of international relations, it is the ability of a country to attract other countries rather than coerce them to its own preferences. This is primarily achieved through cultural influence. 

However, at the risk of sounding redundant, economic power is the most important form of power in the global power dynamics, despite military capability being the most raw form of power. 

Is Military Strength Becoming Less Relevant?

Wars are increasingly becoming too impractical to win because the majority of modern wars are unconventional, where the adversary is usually overthrown quickly by a superior military. But for all intents and purposes, it leads the former to disperse, mix up with the local civilian population and mount an insurgency, which has been described as effectively undefeatable. 

However, despite war going out of fashion, with the exception of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, countries maintain militaries for the secondary purpose of deterrence. In this sense, military strength is still highly relevant, albeit superseded by economic power. 

Why Economic Power Defines the 21st Century

Economic strength has fast become the most important form of power in the 21st century, primarily due to the fact that the majority of countries’ economies have become market-driven following globalization. Trade liberalization has grown by an average of 8% since the past decade across the world. This has led to about 130 countries economically prospering over the same time period. 

The Capitalist Peace theory asserts that countries with mutual business interests established through economic liberalization are unlikely to go to war with each other. 

Although the evidence to support the theory remains inconclusive according to political scientist Erik Gartzke, they contend that countries with lower levels of market freedom are 14 times more likely to go to war than countries with higher levels.  

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