Countries Which Want to Rein In NSA Spying Collectively Have Bigger Economies than the U.S. and Its Spy Buddies
21 Nations Line Up Behind UN Effort To Stop NSA
Foreign Policy reports that 21 nations have joined the push for the adoption of a United Nations General Resolution protecting internet privacy against NSA spying.They include the following nations: Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guyana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Norway, Paraguay, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and Uruguay.
Those names don’t mean too much in a vacuum … so let’s look at the size of their economies (using International Monetary Fund figures for 2012):
COUNTRY | RANK (WORLD’S BIGGEST ECONOMIES) | GDP ($USD IN MILLIONS) |
Germany | 4th | 3,429,519 |
France | 5th | 2,613,936 |
Brazil | 7th | 2,253,090 |
India | 10th | 1,841,717 |
Mexico | 14th | 1,177,398 |
Indonesia | 16th | 878,536 |
Switzerland | 20th | 631,183 |
Sweden | 22nd | 523,804 |
Norway | 23rd | 499,633 |
Argentina | 26th | 475,211 |
Austria | 28th | 394,868 |
South Africa | 29th | 384,315 |
Venezuela | 31st | 381,286 |
Hungary | 58th | 125,660 |
Ecuador | 63rd | 84,040 |
Cuba | 70th | 60,806 |
Uruguay | 77th | 49,920 |
Bolivia | 93rd | 27,232 |
Paraguay | 95th | 26,073 |
Liechtenstein | 149th | 5,113 |
Guyana | 157th | 2,828 |
TOTAL: $15,866,168 (remember: all figures in this post are in millions.)
In comparison, the U.S. – the world’s largest economy – has a GDP of $16,244,575 … larger than the 21 countries.But we can’t look at this fight in a vacuum … the rest of the “Five Eyes” of allied spies – Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand – are backing the U.S. As is Israel (and see this).
So let’s add them to the U.S. side of the ledger:
COUNTRY | RANK | GDP |
U.S. | 1st | 16,244,575 |
United Kingdom | 6th | 2,476,665 |
Canada | 11th | 1,821,445 |
Australia | 12th | 1,541,700 |
Israel | 39th | 257,480 |
New Zealand | 55th | 169,831 |
TOTAL: $22,511,696
But China and Russia
hate NSA spying so much that they have joined the new BRICS consortium
– along with India, Brazil and South Africa – which is building its own
Internet infrastructure to avoid NSA spying.So let’s add them to the total opposing NSA spying:
COUNTRY | RANK | GDP |
21 Countries | 15,866,168 | |
China | 2nd | 8,221,015 |
Russia | 8th | 2,029,813 |
TOTAL: $26,116,996
The bottom line is that there is currently more money aligned against U.S. spying than for it.
Notes: The above analysis is admittedly
over-simplified. But it still shows the general shift of economic
power away from American spy imperialism.
For example, concentration of economic
power is important. The U.S. – as the world’s largest economy – would
presumably have more power than several nations whose GDP cumulatively
equals the U.S.
Japan – the world’s 3rd largest economy
– has been a close ally of the U.S. for some time. Japan hasn’t
weighed in on the spying issue, but if we count Japan’s GDP onto the
U.S. side, it would swing the economic balance in favor of the U.S.
In addition, the U.S. has by far the world’s largest military, which – for now – gives it additional influence.
Technical note: For the couple of nations for which IMF figures were not available, we used the CIA Factbook.
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