page_title: United States
section_title: Foreign relations and military
hierarchical_section_title: United States / Foreign relations and military
caption_attribution_description: English: Secretary Clinton met with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in the Treaty Room at the Department of State, May 14, 2010
context_page_description: The United States of America is a federal republic of fifty states, a federal district, and several territories. It is commonly called the United States, the United States of America, and also sometimes just America.
  The country is mostly in North America. There are forty-eight states that border each other and Washington, D.C., the capital district. These states are between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. They are bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south.
  The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses some territories, or insular areas, in the Caribbean and Pacific.
  At 3.79 million square miles and with about 331 million people, the United States is the third or fourth-largest country by total area and third-largest by land area and by population.
  The United States is one of the world's most ethnically mixed and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.
context_section_description: The United States is very influential in global economics, politics, and the military. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and the headquarters of the United Nations is in New York City. It is a member of the G7, G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and Taiwan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States. The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom and strong ties with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Israel.
  The president is the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and by the Department of the Navy during times of war. In 2008, the armed forces had 1.4 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and National Guard for a total of 2.3 million troops. The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.
  The military budget of the United States in 2011 was more than $700 billion, 41% of global military spending and equal to the next 14 largest national military expenditures combined. At 4.7% of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top 15 military spenders, after Saudi Arabia. U.S. defense spending as a percentage of GDP ranked 23rd globally in 2012 according to the CIA. The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2012, $553 billion, was a 4.2% increase over 2011; an additional $118 billion was proposed for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. The last American troops serving in Iraq departed in December 2011; 4,484 service members were killed during the Iraq War. Approximately 90,000 U.S. troops were serving in Afghanistan in April 2012; by November 8, 2013 2,285 had been killed during the War in Afghanistan.
caption: British Foreign Secretary William Hague and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, May 2010
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2010:05:26 17:40:45", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "442", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "314"}