26 countries in the world have no army.

As war is forbidden (UN Charter Article 2), many others could do the same.

• 1. Constitutional provisions on the absence of an army or limiting armed forces to police forces.

• 2. Absence of heavy weapons.

• 3. Civil attachment of paramilitary forces (customs, coast guard, air guard, intelligence, homeland security, anit-riots squads and so forth) to the civil authority.

Andorra

Vatican

• One country out of 8 in the world is without an army (26 of 194, 14%) !
• Although all rather small, there are rich and poor, old and recent ones.
• 20 of these countries are islands or archipelagos, 4 have no access to the sea.
• 7 were demilitarized : 5 for serious problems due to the army, one for economic reasons, one for ballistic reasons. All others are born without an army.
• Only 7 of them have, to varying degrees, « protectors ». All others manage their own security and international relations alone.
• Except 3 of them, Niue, Cook Islands and the Holy see (Vatican) they are all members of the UN.
• Except for the Vatican, they are all democratic.
• According to the Human Development Index of the United Nations, the situation of women there seems to be better.
• Budgets for education and literacy rates are also comparatively better.
• The history of the countries without army is full of lessons learned on non-military ways of solving conflicts.
• There are also « territories » without an army or demilitarized by treaty : the Moon, the Antarctica, the Alland Islands (Finland), the Spitsbergen, number of small islands, the Monn and all celectial bodies (By a world wide treaty), etc.
• The existence of countries without an army makes it possibile to have none-violent institutions, including nations-sates.

Reference