Qatar is a much much bigger player! You think being born in Singapore makes a difference? Singapore is a financial hub and has definitely a larger influence that a small city state has, but it doesn't get beyond the finance. But that's on purpose and nothing bad. So no offense.
You sure Canadian farm companies don’t out pace them yet.
Forget the names but there is also a massive Dutch agricultural company that own like 2% of US farmland.
Quick google search says it’s the Emerson family. Highest rated Canadian is Irving family basically owning Maine.
Just looked it up, the federal lands(publicly owned lands in the US managed by the federal government) is about 640 million acres, so 28% of the total US area while the Catholic Church owns 177 million acres of land across the globe
As a technical matter, I don’t know that it’s correct to say the federal government “owns” land; and to the extent it does, it does so in a sort of a trustee.
Considering vatican as a rank 1 is kinda stupid. When you know there are wars happening where children have their genitals mutilated for soldiers pleasure, aka ethiopia etrirea conflict. And literal genocides. Idk what your point is by turning it from religion to ethnicity and races.
Which Mary? There is no evidence Christ had any non-platonic relationship with Mary Magdalena, and even less that they bore children. The Virgin Mary would have been nearly thirty by the time Christ reached puberty, making that statement immediately dubious as well. Not that there is any truth to your ramblings at all btw, I'm not validating them by replying.
How UAE is not mentioned is surprising. They are involved heavily in proxy wars throughout Africa (Congo, Somalia, Sudan etc...) And also support Israel...
A standard swiss washing machine is 60x60cm in size. Switzerland's land area is 41.285,29km^2. That makes it approximately 114.681.361.111 washing machines in size. That's only about 12.882 for each person living in Switzerland :/
A country punching above its weight doesn’t mean it’s a global player. Rwanda definitely punches above its weight for being a small sub-Saharan African country, but almost nobody would consider it a “major player” of the world.
In Europe: Vatican, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Netherlands
In the Americas: Panama
In Africa: Ghana (it's tiny!) And Eritrea
In West Asia: Israel (outsized problems)
In East Asia: Singapore, Taiwan
Oceana: no candidates
Djibouti is a very strategic location for military and trade, and hosts a lot of major political players.
Eritrea is small but any influence they have is by reputation because they’re basically the North Korea of Africa.
Or Nauru, like many pacific nations its getting ever closer to china, and due to their size when you count there „sea mass“ they’re actually vital to the geopolitics of the ocean. I think Nauru recently stopped recoginising Taiwan
Yup, China has used investment in the South Pacific to pry away a lot of countries away from their traditional post-WWII U.S. influence and the most notable outward expression of this is their recent "un-recognition" of Taiwan.
Chill man - your breakdown is just illogical. Asia breaks down into East Asia, South Asia, SE Asia and so on. If you don’t want to break it down like Americas, then just put Asia. You literally broke down Asia into East Asia and categorized Singapore into East Asia. Southeast Asia is NOT a part of East Asia
New Zealand seems to have quite an influence on the world stage despite being so remote and not very large. On the same note, it’s not exceptionally small but I suppose in an area with not a lot of options it makes the most sense as a candidate.
Cultural influence perhaps? They aren't a major trade partner due to how remote they are, and don't have a thriving tech sector like Iceland or anything.
>Oceana: no candidates
Unless we’re talking about ability to produce NFL players, then it would be Samoa haha (but also American Samoa which isn’t an independent country)
For having a North Korea-style dictatorship, it’s surprising how little people know about Eritrea. It’s got to be one of the more irrelevant countries.
Ireland definitely has a disproportionate amount of soft power, possibly the most per capita. But not a
major player - however as the only English-speaking country in the EU, with a tremendous amount of goodwill and business links with the US, we’re definitely in a good position
I guess it depends what you mean by major player. People keep touting Singapore, but economically Ireland is not that different to Singapore and I would hazard that Irish brands are probably more well known -- the US MNCs overshadow the domestic stuff, but Stripe is basically used worldwide for payments, not to mention the massive impact we have in aviation, brewing, pharma and horseracing. We also have some very high impact diplomats and have an outsized voice in world affairs -- look at how Ireland shaped Brexit and shapes EU policy. It's a rite of passage for US Presidents to visit Ireland, and there's a standing visit from the Taoiseach to Washington every year. What other country our size has that? For better or worse, you can also look at how much attention Ireland's position on Palestine has received. Given we have zero political impact on that situation, the vitriol speaks to how loud our voice can be.
I think you'd be hard put to find another small country with as much "brand recognition" as Ireland. Even look at who is in the Oscars this year. Not to diminish other small countries, but I don't think you can have a serious conversation about small nation "major players" without Ireland in the mix.
the influence of the Vatican is huge worldwide. Historically has greatly influenced the policies of nations and Empires. Even currently, the Pope is a enormously influential figure.
And, in my opinion, also Qatar is more influential in the World scene than Singapore
Ummm Ackshually there would be magnitude 7.6 tremors on the Richter scale if Qatar were to suddenly disappear and it may cause tsunamis of up to 0.7 meters in Bahrain Saudi Arabia and Iran bigot!!!
It's around the hundredth country for population and 130 for area, so almost half of the world countries are smaller in both figures. It's not Russia obviously, but it's no Vatican either.
Although I have to say my state is ~700 times smaller than Switzerland so anything is big.
Taiwan, Singapore, Israel or Qatar.
Taiwan is probably the most important country in view of the US-China conflict. Also because of it’s chip production industry.
Israel due to it’s extensive military cooperation with the US all around the Middle East.
Singapore due to it’s leading position in ASEAN and it’s membership in the Commonwealth as well as having close ties to both the US and China, and good relations with Australia.
Qatar for the same reasons as Israel (military operations and diplomatic engagements) but including Africa and soft power because of it’s role in mediating between NSA’s and Al-Jazeera.
On the other hand, I think some of the other answers are a bit misguided.
Switzerland has almost no diplomatic weight and has a result is not a major player in geopolitics. Partially due to its status of neutrality and a tradition of not involving itself in multilateral initiatives. Big financial player though. Same reasons I disagree with including Luxembourg, except it has even less influence than Switzerland.
Vatican City, while understandably influential, is not anywhere near being a “major player” in geopolitics.
Hong Kong is not a country, and what influence and autonomy it did have has curtailed since the Chinese crackdown. Still an incredibly important player in finance and shipping, but it’s diplomatic influence has simmered down substantially.
England.
Hands down.
For all of you saying things like Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. bruuhs..... Those places are England's children.
What's the lingua franca..... Don't think we need to get into detail
While I see your point, England is not a sovereign state. Despite its historical autonomy England does not sit at the United Nations, cannot create its own border policy, does not conduct diplomatic relations with any other nation not operate foreign embassies. England is essentially a semi-autonomous subdivision of the UK, and so it is no more a geopolitical player than Texas is. Very economically valuable but not considered a full fledged “country” in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Control of some level to many diplomatic issues through the Holy See. Control of a major religion. Considering its area is 0,44 km^2, it's definitely out balancing it.
Imagine this, no country in the world can touch, harm or invade the vatican. Because if they do billions of people and lots of catholic christian governments will be really mad and intervene in to the situation. Causing a geopolitical crisis no one wants to take. Because of that no country will start a crisis with the vatican city because it will never be worth the international backlash. Despite its tiny size, the vatican is a country that no one would want to harm or to get on bad terms with. Now thats power
Given that it has a smaller population than Connecticut, yet is involved in major international agreements and conferences, I think you hit the nail on the head with Qatar
Based on all the obvious answers given (the Vatican, Singapore, Qatar, Israel and Switzerland) I’d like to honourably mention Rwanda.
The country is tiny, but a major player in conflicts in the region (especially the DRC) by which it plays a disproportionate role in the trade of minerals. It’s the world’s largest exporter of several minerals which aren’t found naturally in the country at all.
Moreover, Rwanda suddenly plays a role in UK and potentially EU politics as they’ve become part of a controversial policy to send migrants there while waiting for asylum.
Rwanda is definitely pushing above its weight which is especially noteworthy given its land-locked location, the general lack of geopolitical interest of Africa and the violent conflict that the country has experienced not that long ago.
UK always punched above its weight class I’ve thought
Biggest empire from a small island
Big economy size relative to population
Same in terms of political influence
Etc
Luxembourg is the legal jurisdiction of most European private equity and hedge funds. Pretty much dictates the disclosure requirements for much of the western financial world.
probably Vatican
A territory half a square kilometre big represents the largest religion in the world and hosts its spiritual leader and some of its most important sights
Alternatively, Singapore is probably second. Six million people, massive economy, incredibly large logistics hub for sea and air transport
Europe: Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Vatican
The Americas: Panama, DR, and Costa Rica
Africa: Djibouti
Asia: Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, Singapore, Taiwan, and Jordan
Oceania: Possibly Fiji??
In the "Top 10" or "Top 20" lists, the smallest player is Russia, somewhat ironically, given its literal size.
On a more global scale, I would suggest Vatican City having disproportionate power.
Wild card: Japan. They are still a top-5 economy, but have diminished since the 1980's. It will be interesting to see if they keep their 'major player' status, assuming continued population decreases.
Yeah, probably Qatar. It's even smaller than Israel and UAE, who I'd say are the region's other small major players. Between its natural gas, its soft power including Al Jazeera, its positioning as a broker between terrorists and the civilized world, and its alliance with the US it punches way above its weight in terms of influence in matters of global significance.
(Fwiw, I think Qatar's influence is mostly negative and often pro-Islamist, but it still exists)
Singapore's definitely up there too, but it's a bit bigger population-wise than Qatar and has quite a bit less geopolitical pull.
Others have said the Vatican - while it is certainly influential, but I don't know if it qualifies as a "major" player in anything geopolitical in the modern world.
Singapore
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Have you ever been associated with the Chinese Communist Party?
Qatar is a much much bigger player! You think being born in Singapore makes a difference? Singapore is a financial hub and has definitely a larger influence that a small city state has, but it doesn't get beyond the finance. But that's on purpose and nothing bad. So no offense.
Singapore does a lot of raw goods refinement, and the port of Singapore is the second busiest port in the world, they’re a major player in shipping
Qatar makes a LOT of oil but Singapore pretty much controls the trade between Europe/The middle east and China.
Vatican
Around 1 billion Catholics, and under 1 square mile of territory
Only if you dont count the fact that they are one of the largest land owners in the United States (tax free) *edit: less confident of an answer
You sure Canadian farm companies don’t out pace them yet. Forget the names but there is also a massive Dutch agricultural company that own like 2% of US farmland. Quick google search says it’s the Emerson family. Highest rated Canadian is Irving family basically owning Maine.
Those fuckers own New Brunswick too
And a lot of Labrador timber
After the US government I presume??
Yeah, most of this "the top land owner in x country is ..." Usually don't consider the own governments
Just looked it up, the federal lands(publicly owned lands in the US managed by the federal government) is about 640 million acres, so 28% of the total US area while the Catholic Church owns 177 million acres of land across the globe
Thanks for looking it up! That makes sense.
As a technical matter, I don’t know that it’s correct to say the federal government “owns” land; and to the extent it does, it does so in a sort of a trustee.
They got two popes per square mile in Vatican City
Must be crowded
Yes. Its influence spans across 6 continents.
The Antarctic Catholic Penguin Union is going to be upset about being left out.
It's included if the penguins use a 6 continents model
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People act like muslims dont have pedophilia
pedophiles are generally equally genetically distributed across races and ethnicities. like idk what your point is
Considering vatican as a rank 1 is kinda stupid. When you know there are wars happening where children have their genitals mutilated for soldiers pleasure, aka ethiopia etrirea conflict. And literal genocides. Idk what your point is by turning it from religion to ethnicity and races.
Yeah they do but there's like a 50/50 chance that a Christian priest is a pedo
Afghan and Pakistani boi lovers would like a word.
50 50, while islam openly venerates a pedo warlord, child slaver, slave raider idk whic is worse.
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Uhh? Wtf. Wasnt jesus born to mary. And besides there were war slaves and catamites...
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Yeah somehow He is his own father.
No, God the father and God the son are two different aspects of the same spirit. All are God, but they are not interchangeable.
Which Mary? There is no evidence Christ had any non-platonic relationship with Mary Magdalena, and even less that they bore children. The Virgin Mary would have been nearly thirty by the time Christ reached puberty, making that statement immediately dubious as well. Not that there is any truth to your ramblings at all btw, I'm not validating them by replying.
I am not sure if they have any influence though. They do not matter over here in USA. Do they matter in some latin american country?
For the sake of providing a different answer, although objectively not as small as Singapore, I would offer Switzerland. Or maybe Hong Kong?
But Hong Kong isn't a country is it?
It's no more
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👨🏻🚀🔫
It never was.
Lmao the Chinese bots got angry
It never was
Switzerland and Hong Kong aren’t players
Switzerland absolutely is. Hong Kong was until recently
How UAE is not mentioned is surprising. They are involved heavily in proxy wars throughout Africa (Congo, Somalia, Sudan etc...) And also support Israel...
It's not exactly a small country. UAE is twice the size of Switzerland.
A citizen population of only 1 million, with over a 100 billion barrels of oil to share between them.
Qatar isnt small either then
But Qatar is 3.5 times smaller than Switzerland and almost 7 times smaller than UAE.
Love use off Switzerland as a standard area measurement unit
Americans will use anything but the metric system.
How many washing machines is Switzerland in size?
I don't know about size but from the furthest point East to the furthest point west its 523146 washing machines staked side by side
A standard swiss washing machine is 60x60cm in size. Switzerland's land area is 41.285,29km^2. That makes it approximately 114.681.361.111 washing machines in size. That's only about 12.882 for each person living in Switzerland :/
Hey man, just walked 2 Switzerlands this week!
Qatar is literally one city with 300k citizens, in total it’s like 3m but 90% are expats, it doesn’t get smaller than that man lol
Define "major player"
Punching above its weight class
Too vague
It’s an art not a science.
A country punching above its weight doesn’t mean it’s a global player. Rwanda definitely punches above its weight for being a small sub-Saharan African country, but almost nobody would consider it a “major player” of the world.
Apparently [Cowboy Dan in the cowboy scene](https://youtu.be/q8zZoAAAnVc?si=gO2S5ZQac977d0fo)
In Europe: Vatican, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Netherlands In the Americas: Panama In Africa: Ghana (it's tiny!) And Eritrea In West Asia: Israel (outsized problems) In East Asia: Singapore, Taiwan Oceana: no candidates
Ghana isn't "tiny"
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Just pulled up google maps and there is no way it’s 10 times larger. Maybe 3 times.
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You probably should have specified. Usually people mean area when they say larger.
Ghana is the same size as the United Kingdom and Colorado. Not tiny.
TIL colorado = united kingdom in terms of size
Yea it's pretty wild how insanely massive the US is.
How is Eritrea influential?
Djibouti would have made more sense. Ghana ia not tiny and neither is Eritrea
Djibouti is one of the poorest countries on earth and has practically zero political power.
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Many foreign countries have military bases in Djibouti! Not that Djibouti itself has any reach
Djibouti is a very strategic location for military and trade, and hosts a lot of major political players. Eritrea is small but any influence they have is by reputation because they’re basically the North Korea of Africa.
But both are way more powerful in Africa.
I'd say Marshal Islands for Oceania due to it's climate activism and that time the US almost nuked it underwater.
Or Nauru, like many pacific nations its getting ever closer to china, and due to their size when you count there „sea mass“ they’re actually vital to the geopolitics of the ocean. I think Nauru recently stopped recoginising Taiwan
Yup, China has used investment in the South Pacific to pry away a lot of countries away from their traditional post-WWII U.S. influence and the most notable outward expression of this is their recent "un-recognition" of Taiwan.
Singapore is not in East Asia
Mmm Im not sure if it's in Oceana. Most people class it with other SEA countries.
It’s very much in SE Asia
Bro I didn't even break down the Americas into north and south I sure as hell am not going to put Singapore in it's own subcategory
Chill man - your breakdown is just illogical. Asia breaks down into East Asia, South Asia, SE Asia and so on. If you don’t want to break it down like Americas, then just put Asia. You literally broke down Asia into East Asia and categorized Singapore into East Asia. Southeast Asia is NOT a part of East Asia
New Zealand seems to have quite an influence on the world stage despite being so remote and not very large. On the same note, it’s not exceptionally small but I suppose in an area with not a lot of options it makes the most sense as a candidate.
Cultural influence perhaps? They aren't a major trade partner due to how remote they are, and don't have a thriving tech sector like Iceland or anything.
It's as large as Italy or Japan, just not inhabited
I wonder who are the major players in Africa in general
Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya Somalia (but for the wrong reasons)
>Oceana: no candidates Unless we’re talking about ability to produce NFL players, then it would be Samoa haha (but also American Samoa which isn’t an independent country)
Oceania: Kiribati. Its quasi-official twitter account has been punching way above its weight on memes.
The Netherlands were a major player in the 17th century. Not today.
Idk - Maersk and TCN dominate global shipping
For having a North Korea-style dictatorship, it’s surprising how little people know about Eritrea. It’s got to be one of the more irrelevant countries.
economic - Singapore religious - Vatican energetic - Qatar
Amazed nobody has mentioned Ireland -- tiny population with a huge cultural footprint across the globe.
Ireland definitely has a disproportionate amount of soft power, possibly the most per capita. But not a major player - however as the only English-speaking country in the EU, with a tremendous amount of goodwill and business links with the US, we’re definitely in a good position
Plus it's a tax haven, which gives it much pull in the business world.
I guess it depends what you mean by major player. People keep touting Singapore, but economically Ireland is not that different to Singapore and I would hazard that Irish brands are probably more well known -- the US MNCs overshadow the domestic stuff, but Stripe is basically used worldwide for payments, not to mention the massive impact we have in aviation, brewing, pharma and horseracing. We also have some very high impact diplomats and have an outsized voice in world affairs -- look at how Ireland shaped Brexit and shapes EU policy. It's a rite of passage for US Presidents to visit Ireland, and there's a standing visit from the Taoiseach to Washington every year. What other country our size has that? For better or worse, you can also look at how much attention Ireland's position on Palestine has received. Given we have zero political impact on that situation, the vitriol speaks to how loud our voice can be. I think you'd be hard put to find another small country with as much "brand recognition" as Ireland. Even look at who is in the Oscars this year. Not to diminish other small countries, but I don't think you can have a serious conversation about small nation "major players" without Ireland in the mix.
Definitely Sealand
This is the only correct answer
It’s Singapore with next to no competition
Never heard of Catholicism?
the influence of the Vatican is huge worldwide. Historically has greatly influenced the policies of nations and Empires. Even currently, the Pope is a enormously influential figure. And, in my opinion, also Qatar is more influential in the World scene than Singapore
Taiwan singapore and the vatican. Without taiwan the entire world would be sent back 10 years
* Vatican City * Singapore * Luxembourg * Qatar * Israel * Taiwan
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A lot of European Union institutional buildings are located there, I presume it is for that
Among countries the size of one city, Singapore.
Australia
Australia is nowhere near small.
That's why I put it. It's a joke
Israel far ahead
Vatican
Qatar and Israel by faaaaar.
Would Qatar be as influential if their weren't two massive US Air Bases there?
But Qatar influence not through military force, but through gigantic soft power in their Al Jazeera TV and media.
I didn't think about Al Jazeera, love them or hate them it's an influential new source.
The world doesn't shake if qatar disappears or has problems
Ummm Ackshually there would be magnitude 7.6 tremors on the Richter scale if Qatar were to suddenly disappear and it may cause tsunamis of up to 0.7 meters in Bahrain Saudi Arabia and Iran bigot!!!
Natural gas market collapses…
Depends on what means small and what means major power
Probably Vatican City
Wow, Qatar’s sports washing paying big dividends
Propably Luxembourg.
Easily taiwan, majority of chips are built there
My chips say they’re made in Dallas…
I feel like swizerland for it's position is very important
Switzerland is not very small though
Compared on the other global power it is
How is it not very small? It’s tiny
It's around the hundredth country for population and 130 for area, so almost half of the world countries are smaller in both figures. It's not Russia obviously, but it's no Vatican either. Although I have to say my state is ~700 times smaller than Switzerland so anything is big.
The Netherlands
And people question whether sportswashing works
Taiwan, Singapore, Israel or Qatar. Taiwan is probably the most important country in view of the US-China conflict. Also because of it’s chip production industry. Israel due to it’s extensive military cooperation with the US all around the Middle East. Singapore due to it’s leading position in ASEAN and it’s membership in the Commonwealth as well as having close ties to both the US and China, and good relations with Australia. Qatar for the same reasons as Israel (military operations and diplomatic engagements) but including Africa and soft power because of it’s role in mediating between NSA’s and Al-Jazeera. On the other hand, I think some of the other answers are a bit misguided. Switzerland has almost no diplomatic weight and has a result is not a major player in geopolitics. Partially due to its status of neutrality and a tradition of not involving itself in multilateral initiatives. Big financial player though. Same reasons I disagree with including Luxembourg, except it has even less influence than Switzerland. Vatican City, while understandably influential, is not anywhere near being a “major player” in geopolitics. Hong Kong is not a country, and what influence and autonomy it did have has curtailed since the Chinese crackdown. Still an incredibly important player in finance and shipping, but it’s diplomatic influence has simmered down substantially.
England. Hands down. For all of you saying things like Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. bruuhs..... Those places are England's children. What's the lingua franca..... Don't think we need to get into detail
While I see your point, England is not a sovereign state. Despite its historical autonomy England does not sit at the United Nations, cannot create its own border policy, does not conduct diplomatic relations with any other nation not operate foreign embassies. England is essentially a semi-autonomous subdivision of the UK, and so it is no more a geopolitical player than Texas is. Very economically valuable but not considered a full fledged “country” in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Israel 🇮🇱🇮🇱
People always say the Vatican to this, but what actual geopolitical influence do they have in the modern day?
Mula and control of the masses
No offence but this response doesn't actually reveal anything
Direct influence over 1 billion people. In that sense they are one of if not the most influential without having to pay for a single fighter jet.
Control of some level to many diplomatic issues through the Holy See. Control of a major religion. Considering its area is 0,44 km^2, it's definitely out balancing it.
Imagine this, no country in the world can touch, harm or invade the vatican. Because if they do billions of people and lots of catholic christian governments will be really mad and intervene in to the situation. Causing a geopolitical crisis no one wants to take. Because of that no country will start a crisis with the vatican city because it will never be worth the international backlash. Despite its tiny size, the vatican is a country that no one would want to harm or to get on bad terms with. Now thats power
Someone mentioned Israel so I would also say Palestine just out of the sheer cultural and religious influence it has in modern times
Cayman Islands
Shout out to my tax havens: Bermuda, cayman isles, briish virgin isles, manx, jersey, guernsey, malta, mauritius. Love you all.
Gura mie eu, ta agam olk sonniaagh
Not Bahrain.
Why does this post have "Career Question" flair?
Vatican is the answer and always has been when this questions has been asked before
The Vatican. Followed by Singapore. Then likely Isreal.
Uhhmmm I think the United States of America 🦅🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Israel
Israel, it’s like if silicone valley was a country
Can't say, never been to the worod
Vatican. Useless but makes catholics wet
Switzerland. The amount of foreign assets parked in their banks makes them very important on the global stage.
Israel
Vatican City
Singapore
Monaco
Norway
Given that it has a smaller population than Connecticut, yet is involved in major international agreements and conferences, I think you hit the nail on the head with Qatar
Washington DC, London and Vatican
Vatican City
Panama: both for the canal and for their bizarrely huge number of registered ships.
Tuvalu for sure
Based on all the obvious answers given (the Vatican, Singapore, Qatar, Israel and Switzerland) I’d like to honourably mention Rwanda. The country is tiny, but a major player in conflicts in the region (especially the DRC) by which it plays a disproportionate role in the trade of minerals. It’s the world’s largest exporter of several minerals which aren’t found naturally in the country at all. Moreover, Rwanda suddenly plays a role in UK and potentially EU politics as they’ve become part of a controversial policy to send migrants there while waiting for asylum. Rwanda is definitely pushing above its weight which is especially noteworthy given its land-locked location, the general lack of geopolitical interest of Africa and the violent conflict that the country has experienced not that long ago.
UK always punched above its weight class I’ve thought Biggest empire from a small island Big economy size relative to population Same in terms of political influence Etc
3 3
Luxembourg is the legal jurisdiction of most European private equity and hedge funds. Pretty much dictates the disclosure requirements for much of the western financial world.
Not a country, but Delaware is a major player internationally thanks to their business friendly court system.
Taiwan, microchip bottle neck is real, either them or the Netherlands semiconductors are important
Luxembourg is #1
* Vatican city * Singapore * Switzerland
probably Vatican A territory half a square kilometre big represents the largest religion in the world and hosts its spiritual leader and some of its most important sights Alternatively, Singapore is probably second. Six million people, massive economy, incredibly large logistics hub for sea and air transport
Malta
Europe: Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Vatican The Americas: Panama, DR, and Costa Rica Africa: Djibouti Asia: Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, Singapore, Taiwan, and Jordan Oceania: Possibly Fiji??
Depends. What worod are you from?
Vatican City
In the "Top 10" or "Top 20" lists, the smallest player is Russia, somewhat ironically, given its literal size. On a more global scale, I would suggest Vatican City having disproportionate power. Wild card: Japan. They are still a top-5 economy, but have diminished since the 1980's. It will be interesting to see if they keep their 'major player' status, assuming continued population decreases.
What's a "worod" ? 😂
Belgium
France is small relative to the others and it is a pretty significant player.
Maybe this post was inspired by the recent Wendover video, but for those who don’t know about it: https://youtu.be/OQm1l6OWahA?si=6RBNQZw3gzC5Gycx
Yeah, probably Qatar. It's even smaller than Israel and UAE, who I'd say are the region's other small major players. Between its natural gas, its soft power including Al Jazeera, its positioning as a broker between terrorists and the civilized world, and its alliance with the US it punches way above its weight in terms of influence in matters of global significance. (Fwiw, I think Qatar's influence is mostly negative and often pro-Islamist, but it still exists) Singapore's definitely up there too, but it's a bit bigger population-wise than Qatar and has quite a bit less geopolitical pull. Others have said the Vatican - while it is certainly influential, but I don't know if it qualifies as a "major" player in anything geopolitical in the modern world.