nations are increasing their military spending. Yet there are other some countries that

don’t have any military at all. The question is, who are these countries and how can they

afford to not have a military in these difficult times?

Well, there are currently twenty-three nations without an active military including

Costa Rica, Iceland, Panama and the Vatican. And there are many reasons for this.

Some of these countries gained independence from a larger nation and chose not to

create a military because of their relatively small size and lack of foreign enemies. Quite

simply, there isn’t enough land, resources or potential for conflict in those nations

to

mandate forming an army to protect themselves.---

Many of these countries have signed deals with other nations ensuring their security.

Some of these nations are being protected by former occupiers or their nearest

neighbors. Australia, for example, has agreed to help the island nations of Nauru and

Kiribati; Spain and France have a protection treaty with Andorra; and the United States

has defense pacts with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.

Some nations chose to abolish their military due to high levels of corruption. Panama

for example dismantled their standing military after General Manuel Noriega was

arrested during an invasion by the United States, and convicted of drug trafficking,

racketeering and money laundering. They do however continue several para-military

forces.

Both Haiti and Costa Rica‘s militaries were disbanded for similar reasons. But again,

these countries receive some level of protection from outside sources. As of October

2014 Haiti has over 7,200 U.N. troops and police in the country. Costa Rica has an

arrangement with the U.S. Coast Guard to help them combat the drug trade there.

Other countries have some sort of small military force be it a national police force or

coast guard, but these forces are not enough to constitute a standing army. Though

they sometimes participate in army like activities. Iceland for example, sent members

of their Crisis Response Unit on foreign peacekeeping missions to Sudan, Afghanistan

and Kosovo. But that does not make them a standing army. They have enough troops

to run their country peacefully, but not enough to run a war.

Many of these countries will remain demilitarized, primarily because forming a military

is expensive. Some countries will remain demilitarized for economic reasons. In 2012, global

military spending was 2.42% of GDP. For individual countries, this could mean millions of

dollars in savings. In fact Haiti’s President has proposed rebuilding their military, but

this would

come with a proposed price tag of $95 million dollars Plus, a reported 96% of Haitians polled

are against the idea.

Of course, there are countries all around the world who prioritize having the strongest

militaries in the world, check out our Strength of Nations Playlist. And please

subscribe. Thanks for watching.