​What makes a country strong: a strong army, a strong economy, the degree of digitalization or innovation? Not separately, but a little bit from each, say the Spaniards from the Royal Elcano Institute, which calculates an aggregate index that measures several parameters – economic power, military power and “soft presence”, which includes cultural, touristic, sports development and scientific development. one.

According to the report compiled in 2023, the United States and China continue to lead the list of the most powerful countries in the world, after the United Kingdom of Great Britain held the second place for a while a few years ago.

Romania occupies 51st place (down 3 positions), according to the data of the Report.

The countries leading the ranking of global presence maintain or strengthen their positions. The United States of America leads the list with a global presence index value of 3,654 points. In second place, China is still far behind: 1779 points. It is followed by Germany (908 points), Japan (831), Great Britain (817) and Russia (707 points).

The latest edition of the Elcano Global Presence Index shows the acceleration of reglobalization after the setback during the COVID-19 pandemic, helped by global economic tensions and the war in Ukraine.

Asia and China continue to grow, while the EU continues to lose ground and the US maintains its share of the global presence

The main changes in the top 20 positions of the Elcano Global Presence Index ranking reflect the increasing influence of Asia, the gradual decrease of the influence of Europe, as well as the growth of oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. , which have increased their global influence (although perhaps only temporarily due to tensions in the energy market).

If we approach the US-EU-China strategic triangle in terms of the weight of the global presence, we see an accelerated increase in China’s weight, with the US maintaining its weight and the EU losing it.

This reglobalization takes place in all spheres: economic, military and “soft presence”. However, the military dimension leads with an increase of 11.6% compared to the previous year. This is the highest value for the entire time series measured by Elcano. In part, this behavior can be explained by the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the desire to increase military potential within NATO.

The world after COVID-19 is more bipolar, centered around the US and China

Germany retains the third place in the ranking, which it occupied after being overtaken by China in 2012. However, Germany’s influence is declining and is supported only by the soft dimension (culture, tourism, etc.) and not by its economic presence. and is further reduced by the lack of export dynamism.

Thus, the post-Covid-19 world is a bipolar world centered around the US and China, while the growing trend of Asian influence continues.

Japan drops to fourth place, overtaking the UK, which continues to lose influence in the post-Brexit era. Now India ranks 10th, growing by all criteria – economic, military and soft.

As for Italy, it drops to 11th position, less influential than it was even in 1990.

France’s results are the same as in previous years, taking 7th place, one place behind Russia, which climbed to 6th.

Somewhat paradoxically, Russia is the country that, after the United States and China, has seen the greatest increase in global influence over the past year. It is obvious that the invasion of Ukraine affected Russia’s military presence – one of the indicators of this dimension is the number of troops stationed abroad. Its economic presence has also grown due to rising international oil, gas and commodity prices.

In the case of the EU, there has been a gradual loss of its share of global presence, falling from 23.2% in 2005 to 20.8% today.

Check out the Elcano report here.