Having an army might be practical, but it's not obligatory

There are currently 23 countries in the world that don’t have an army, and they seem to get by just fine.

Their profiles vary significantly, and the total count depends on how states and militaries are defined, but most are small nations with no military capabilities whatsoever. They include Andorra, Costa Rica, Liechtenstein, the Vatican, Samoa, Nauru, Kiribati and other tiny island-states.

In addition, there are half a dozen countries with no standing army that maintain limited paramilitary security forces for protection. These include Iceland, Haiti, Monaco, Mauritius, Vanuatu and Panama. Being a demilitarized state might sound like a peace-loving panacea, but most of these nations made the choice to go without armed forces for very pragmatic reasons: ideals.

Many of the countries were formed without an army when they gained independence — including the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Samoa and Tuvalu — and therefore didn’t see a need to create a military, given their small size and lack of foreign enemies.