Quote Originally Posted by Kazimiera View Post
Nowadays there aren't many "stand-alone" countries anymore.

The US and the UK are friendly. Wherever the US goes, the UK will surely follow like a loyal little lapdog.

Any threat to an EU member country is taking on the entire EU.

The same goes for Russia. Anyone who messes with Russia gets the BRICS countries involved. Not like South Africa and Brazil are much of a threat, but China is. Their economy is strong, they have the technology and manpower. So no, Russia doesn't have the economy to be a world super-power but BRICS does.

War isn't as simple as one country vs the other anymore. It is one alliance taking on another, which makes war in today's time extremely complicated.
Yep. Also, when it really comes to nuclear war, economies will be irrelevant. All the dollars in the world will be of no help to you when nukes start raining down on your cities. And the MAD (mutually assured destruction) concept still holds true: if Russia goes down, they will certainly take the US with them. All that will be left will be Hawaii I think. And Puerto Rico.