France holds a 58–42 advantage over South Korea on the Relative Advantage Index.
The margin is driven by military spending (59% of the combined total, $68.0bn) and logistics & power projection (84% of the combined total, 200). South Korea leads on active personnel.
1 factor — nuclear warheads — could not be scored because the figure is unpublished for at least one side. Those factors are excluded and the remaining weights renormalised, never substituted.
| Factor | France | Share | South Korea | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Military spending SIPRI Milex | $68.0bn | 59%41% | $47.8bn | 33% |
Economic size (GDP) World Bank WDI | $3.2tn | 63%37% | $1.9tn | 27% |
Active personnel COW NMC | 203.0k | 27%73% | 555.0k | 20% |
Logistics & power projection OurAirports | 200 | 84%16% | 38 | 20% |
Shares are each side's portion of the combined total for that factor. Weights are renormalised across the factors both sides publish — see the methodology. Data read 2026-08-04.
Every combination inside the top 30 of the Composite Power Index.
Bordering states — the comparisons people actually search for.