Don't mess with Poland

But in 2014, Poland’s defense spending is expected to rise to around 1.95 percent, or roughly $10.4 billion as required by a 2001 law. Poland’s GDP is much smaller than Britain and France, of course, but that amount puts it in the same per-dollar league as Taiwan.

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However, these numbers conceal Poland’s extra funds for new weapons. According to Defense News, the country set aside more than $28 billion for “new helicopters, air and anti-missile defense systems, vessels, submarines, UAVs and other types of armament” through 2022.

That’s twice Israel’s entire annual defense budget just being spent to modernize its equipment.

Poland is also planning to reduce its overseas presence. Warsaw deployed some 2,500 troops to Iraq and also stationed around 1,600 troops in Ghazni province, Afghanistan.

This second group of soldiers are now coming home. In its place is an ambitious—and territorial—strategy known as the “Komorowski Doctrine,” named after current Pres. Bronisław Komorowski.

This is a plan to structure and train the armed forces in the event of another conventional war against Poland.

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