IAPA wrote:Sorry to post under my puppet, but a player brought this question came up while I was coding stuff. I figured it was best to get an answer here:
Mal, is there any rule of thumb when determining military size? I would imagine it's based, in part, on a percentage of the population and the resources available?
Thanks, - Swith
You should determine a role of your military. This is the first goal. Are you planning on a quick fight? A long fight? Do you need to be powerful abroad? Are your threats nearby?
North Korea and South Korea are at a constant state of war, with the former sandwiched between Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, and the United States 2nd Fleet. North Korea has a military size of 1,790,000, as of 2012 at least, or 7,679,000, depending on whether or not you include the paramilitary groups. This comes to about 7% or 31%, which is huge. North Korea faces crippling famines, a highly incompetent military, and a largely outdated military. Despite their talk, I think the DPRK is quite aware of this.
South Korea's is just as bad, with 3,600,000 soldiers making the entire military as of 2014, but it still makes up 7.1% of the population. South Korea's military is not (as) outdated, and it benefits from a Superpower backer with infinitely deep pockets.
The general rule of thumb is misleading.
The United States, the most powerful military force on this planet, has less than 1% of its population, in fact, .8%, in its Armed Forces. Physically larger than the North Korean Military, it has a 2,500,000 million man military with the most advanced weapons tech to date. It has no neighboring enemies, literally defended by two massive oceans, and has the money to make a logistical nightmare to any invader.
Geopolitics, technology, tactics, and strategy determine your military size. If you're Canada, you keep a small defence force because the massive nation to your south has lots of reasons to defend you from invasion. If you're North Korea, you hold a massive military in order to deter invasion. If you're France, you keep a force large enough to have an expeditionary force and to defend your country. If you're the United States, you hold a much larger military than others in your situation because you need to have a very large expeditionary force.
In my former region, my national military was rather large and defence spending was rather high because it not only needed to be able to deter invasion from a literal superpower next door, but it also needed to be able to counter that nation's influences abroad. While my nation held numerical, technological, and monetary supremacy, I can't just say "I have a bigger military than you so I will win". My military was built to strike fast and hard, to decimate enemy lines of defences before they were fully up, and his military was literally built to stop exactly that.
