Talk:Academy City/@comment-3969505-20140726090043/@comment-34962159-20190802093253

It's true that (realistic) science and geopolitics aren't the author's strong point. However:

The technology of Academy City is, basically, advanced to an impossible extent. It includes things like a gravity manipulating device that can potentially be turned into a planet-destroying black hole bomb (shown in NT12). This extends to their manufacturing capabilities as well. Even if the city's population is small, automation can do a lot to make up for that, and Academy City is more automated than any real life city. By all indications, they can make weapons by themselves and said weapons are enough to fight against other superpowers despite the difference in numbers. Technology with impossible capabilities is quite standard for science fiction settings.

Missiles and artillery shells could potentially be intercepted by lasers. While I don't remember if lasers of this kind have been shown in the series, they do appear in Heavy Object (another series by Kamachi) and they are actually being worked on in real life.

I'm pretty sure that Academy City doesn't announce that its satellites are WMDs. At the very least, there's one satellite (the one that shot at Fiamma and was destroyed by him) that was kept a secret.

Finally, there's the presence of magic in the setting. Both Academy City and several other superpowers are controlled or effectively controlled by magicians, who have their own goals. And Academy City's ruler can influence humanity via the Archetype Controller; if he doesn't want Academy City to be embargoed and destroyed, then it won't be.