France

Some people may be spending more and more in their attempts to make themselves the most powerful army in the world, but that is certainly not what France is doing. If anything, they are doing quite the opposite . . . although funnily enough, with the opposite effect. In 2013, France decided to freeze military spending, which meant that it chose not to increase the spending along with the rate of interest. This actually meant that in real terms, one of the strongest armies in the world cut their military spending. France also got rid of one in ten people, as they were trying to raise a little bit of extra cash so that they could buy fancier equipment in the world of the military global firepower is often seen as more important than actual people. Although these changes do not sound very extreme, they are actually pretty huge. It means that France now only spends around 1.9% of its GDP on its military, which is way below the spending target that NATO has set for its member countries to strive for. However, being the strongest military in the world clearly doesn t depend on how much money you spend. Despite all of this, France s army is still one of the best in the world, and French troops are deployed in far off countries such as the Central African Republic, Senegal, and even Mali.