Posted on 10/27/2014 1:29:07 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The balance of power in the Middle East is in disarray: A three-year civil war has torn apart Syria and opened up a vacuum for the rise of the Islamic State group; Sunni powers led by Saudi Arabia continue to face off against Shi'ite powers led by Iran; other countries are reeling from uprisings in the Arab Spring; and foreign powers are all taking sides.
Faced with this tense paradigm, every country in the region is building up its own military.
Indeed, four of the five fastest-growing defense markets in 2013 were in the Middle East, led by Oman — up 115% in a year — and Saudi Arabia — up 300% in a decade — according to IHS Jane's.
We have analyzed each country to rank the most powerful militaries in the Middle East. This ranking does not count foreign powers like the US or their support, though we have noted important alliances. After looking over state militaries, we also profiled (but did not rank) some of the increasingly powerful non-state military groups.
The ranking is based on a holistic assessment of the militaries' operational capabilities and hardware, based on our research and on interviews with Patrick Megahan, an expert from the Foundation of Defense of Democracies' Military Edge project, and Chris Harmer, senior naval analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
Some countries with large yet incapable militaries rank low on the list; some smaller and technologically advanced militaries from stable states rank fairly high.
Others present analytical challenges that are difficult to get around in a ranking format. For instance, Egypt has an enormous military with little in the way of a recent battlefield record.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Iraq (not counting the Kurds) is in the top 10 but when it comes to the above three, they are pretty USELESS.
Top 15? How many ME countries are there? 16? 17?
There are 24 countries in the Middle East:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mid...
1 Egypt
2 Iran
3 Turkey
4 Sudan
5 Algeria
6 Morocco
7 Iraq
8 Saudi Arabia
9 Yemen
10 Syria
11 Tunisia
12 Israel
14 Libya
15 Jordan
16 United Arab Emirates
17 Palestinian territories
18 Mauritania
18 Kuwait
19 Oman
20 Cyprus
21 Qatar
22 Bahrain
23 Western Sahara
24 Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Ranking Israel aw #12 misses some significant intangibles, along with tangible military assets.
Number 12 on this list has me scratching my head. If Israel were truly the 12th strongest military in the Middle East it would no longer exist.
RE: Number 12 on this list has me scratching my head. If Israel were truly the 12th strongest military in the Middle East it would no longer exist.
The list in Post #4 above is a response to the poster who asked how many countries there are in the middle east, not the most powerful military.
Israel is IN FACT #1. Click the link to the article.
RE: Number 12 on this list has me scratching my head. If Israel were truly the 12th strongest military in the Middle East it would no longer exist.
The list in Post #4 above is a response to the poster who asked how many countries there are in the middle east, not the most powerful military.
Israel is IN FACT #1. Click the link to the article.
Now I can quit scratching. Thanks.
Well... Western Sahara is West of all of Europe. But I suppose the current convention is to call all of North Africa AND Southwest Asia the Middle East, even though the name only truly applies to Southwest Asia.
ISIS wants to believe they encompass the Levant. That’s why they prefer the name : ISIL.
Obama is of course, using that term.
Totally no clue what that has to do with my comment.
The Palestinian territories are not a country.
15. Yemen
14. Lebanon
13. Iraq
12. Bahrain
11. Qatar
10. Kuwait
9. Oman
8. Jordan
7. Syria
6. Egypt
5. Iran
4. UAE United Arab Emirates
3. Saudi Arabia
2. Turkey
1. Israel (yeah)
RE: The Palestinian territories are not a country.
True. But the above article also includes a list called: NON-STATE MILITARIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
Here is a list :
ISLAMIC STATE
HEZBOLLAH
HAMAS
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Jabhat al Nusra
Houthi Rebels in Yemen/Saudi Arabia
Kurdish Peshmerga
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