Is a strong military or a strong economy more crucial for international power and recognition?

We may have the best equipped military, and the military budget here is more than the rest of the world's military budgets combined. But what is our military for? What do they actually do? They make the world safe for American "democracy." Democracy in this sense means they're making the world easier for American business people to conduct business. So why are we losing so much economic ground to other economies around the world? Very good question. Maybe if we treated the rest of the world as partners rather than as our servants, we'd have better economic results. Just my opinion.