Elcano Global Presence Index - Ranking Countries

What is the IEPG project?

The Elcano Global Presence Index (or IEPG, after its initials in Spanish) project aims to show the current situation and evolution –since the end of the Cold War– of the external projection of a series of countries and groupings, both at the global and European levels.

Why an IEPG project?

Academia, international organisations and think-tanks are attempting to conceptualise globalisation and the capacity of countries to shape that process through their international positioning in different spheres of activity. The IEPG is the Elcano Royal Institute’s contribution to this growing field of research.

At the theoretical level, the debate has focused on the world’s new post-Cold War balances, on the rise of emerging powers in a world economy that is increasingly interdependent or on more complex concepts of power in international relations, which include so-called soft elements.

There have also been attempts to operationalise certain dimensions linked to these phenomena –such as, for instance, economic openness and competitiveness, commitment to development or the reputation of their image–, thus allowing international comparisons. With the IEPG, the Elcano Royal Institute aims to fill a void by measuring the international positioning of countries in the globalised world.

What are the contents of the project?

The main output of the project is the Elcano Global Presence Index (IEPG): a synthetic index that ranks, quantifies and aggregates the external projection of different countries.

A country’s global presence is assessed in three fields: economic, military and ‘soft’ (scientific, social, sporting, cultural, etc). The indicators and variables assessed under these three headings are:

• Economic presence comprises the export of primary goods, energy, manufactures and services, as well as outward foreign direct investment.
• Military presence is measured by the number of troops actually deployed abroad and by the equipment necessary to enable overseas deployment.
• ‘Soft’ presence includes immigrant population, tourist arrivals, results in major sporting competitions, exports of audiovisual activities, international dissemination of information through the Internet, volume of foreign-oriented patents, international activity of its academic-university system (both in terms of research, through academic publications, and teaching, as measured by the number of foreign students) and development assistance.

The IEPG is calculated annually since 2010. Global presence has also been estimated for the year 1990 and, since then, for every five years. The index is measured for 60 countries: the world’s top 49 economies, OECD member countries EU member states.

Since its 2012 edition, the IEPG project also measures the EU’s global presence through the IEPG-EU, which estimates the EU’s external projection beyond its borders in 2005, 2010 and yearly since then. This is complemented by the Elcano European Presence Index (IEPE) which assesses the internationalisation of the member states within the sphere of the Union. The IEPE is calculated for the same years as the IEPG-EU and follows the same methodology as the IEPG.

What is the project for?

Measurements of global presence allow international and cross-time comparisons. They are thus a useful tool for:

• Analysing global trends in international presence (the evolution of multipolarity and bipolarity, the rise and/or decline of powers and regions, the greater or lesser role of ‘soft’ as opposed to ‘hard’ power, etc).
• Examining the foreign policy of the countries for which the index is calculated (assessing their efforts in relation to their results, analysing their presence by sector, studying the relation between presence and actual influence, the gap between objective presence and subjective perception or reputation, etc).

IEPG 2012 Ranking

Position	Country	IEPG
1	US	1012.3
2	Germany	390.7
3	UK	347.5
4	China	308.4
5	France	297.5
6	Russia	243.7
7	Japan	237.4
8	Netherlands	218.3
9	Canada	194.1
10	Italy	171.5
11	Spain	162.8
12	Saudi Arabia	152.1
13	Australia	149.4
14	Republic of Korea	146.1
15	Belgium	132.6
16	India	108.0
17	Singapore	105.0
18	Switzerland	97.0
19	Brazil	94.2
20	Sweden	87.7
21	United Arab Emirates	82.3
22	Norway	80.2
23	Mexico	76.2
24	Malaysia	71.4
25	Austria	63.4
26	Indonesia	63.1
27	Turkey	59.2
28	Thailand	58.3
29	Denmark	56.9
30	Poland	55.0
31	Ireland	54.1
32	Iran	53.7
33	Nigeria	43.6
34	Czech Republic	39.5
35	Venezuela	36.8
36	Argentina	36.6
37	Greece	34.6
38	Luxembourg	34.3
39	Finland	33.8
40	Hungary	33.2
41	Algeria	33.1
42	Portugal	32.2
43	Chile	31.5
44	Colombia	30.7
45	South Africa	29.9
46	Israel	28.1
47	Egypt	24.3
48	New Zealand	24.3
49	Romania	24.0
50	Bulgaria	15.3
51	Slovak Republic	14.6
52	Philippines	13.3
53	Pakistan	13.2
54	Lithuania	10.6
55	Slovenia	10.4
56	Estonia	7.3
57	Malta	5.8
58	Latvia	5.7
59	Cyprus	5.6
60	Iceland	5.0
1	European Union	1088.3