If I was president of a country, I would use wooden props (viewable from spaaaaaaaace) and good CGI to let the world believe I have an army to content with, and pressure them to escalate their weaponry upwards, thus making them waste their money on weapons, soldiers and armoury things whilst building my economy up.
Then making all things money go pear-shaped, buying out their soldiers etc, taking control of their countries that way.
Muhuhahahaha.