Designing the Surdran Military (OOC guide)

[Surdra]

So, because I have been asked a couple of times about building militaries and because I needed to redesign mine, I figured I would help you guys out by showing you how I design my military. So, this is going to be a real laid-back informal kind of design process I am also going to include two other guides that I like. They are not perfect, but I think they have really good information of how to help you guys build out your militaries. I will use both while I do this while also including more info as I work, the main point of this is showing you guys a worked example.

OK, so starting out there is two basic ways you could go about this; bottom up and top down. So, the big difference between the two is in bottom up you have an overall idea how you want your military to operate and you build your country to match that. Now personally I do not like this method I think it is boring and is not creative in my opinion. An example of this would be well I want to have a large Navy so therefore you create a situation that forces your country to have a large Navy such as being an island nation or a nation dependent solely on naval trade. I much more prefer the top-down method in that you build your country and then build the military as a response to your nation's needs which is what I will do in this guide. So, in the top-down method we are going to take the total sum of things such as its geography its culture the current political situation from Surdra’s point of view. We are going to look at what Surdra considers its main interests and possible threats, and then from this build the military as a response to these needs and these certain circumstances.

OK so starters for what are we talking about when we are talking about designing military well there are certain things, but the big ones are doctrine, strategy, tactics, and equipment. Doctrine is the overall in character world view of the military. This is how the leaders and planners of the military look at the world and say, “what is our nation’s strategic needs, our nation’s strategic goals, what resources do we possess, and how do we meet these goals with our available resources?” The answers to this question are determined by the national leadership’s perceptions of the problems facing the nation and of its resources. The answers to these questions are going to be determined by your nations leaderships in character worldviews.
So what other kind of factors matter in designing doctrine well for the big ones are going to be geographic demographics economics and culture practically every aspect that your nation has is going to be important to designing the military and the national doctrine certain ones are obvious if your country has a particular geographic identity your nations militaries could be more proposed to fighting in that that geographic location also economics if your country is poor it's not going to be able to afford a large high tech military demographics will determine the structure of your military forces a population that is very high can feel the very large military where is a small country with low fertility rate it's going to have problems fielding a large military all of these things are going to combine together on how your nation perceives how it's going to fight and most importantly create a unique military that is more then just “its like the US military just…..”

OK, so I am going to break up this thread into parts where I am going to go over individual sections one at a time to make it easier for myself and be just to make it's easier to digest so the next post will be about Surdra’s internal political situation and also the geopolitical situation that Surdra is facing and what its natural interest are. Feel free to ask any questions at any time here in the thread, direct message me, or ask on the discord. I am always happy to answer questions.

forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=299597

forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=158614&hilit=guide

[Surdra]

Part 1. Surdra and the World

Starting out in order before we can do anything, we have to look at Surdra as a whole. So first, what is Surdra? Well, the Kingdom of Surdra is a federal and parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an elected representative democracy and political union comprised of twelve countries, seventeen overseas territories (five of which have been granted self-governing status), a federal district, one special administrative region. Looking at the map you can see that what makes up the Kingdom of Surdra is well distributed around the globe. Most of its holdings are small bits of land or remote islands. Most of the nation’s wealth and important territory is held in the 12 countries that make up the Kingdom as a whole: The Surdran Isles, Columbia, Ventelia, Alyeska, Sawaiiki, South Africa, Azania, Ayrca, Sariah, Aururia, Arteara, and Vanutu. All twelve of these countries possess representation within the Surdran parliament and therefore exert a certain amount of control on the overall internal and foreign governance of the nation. The one special administrative region that should be mentioned is Ryoku. Ryoku is an independent country that is currently in a political union with the Surdra monarch and while administered by an official appointed by the Surdran monarch, is not considered part of the Kingdom. Ryoku’s external defense is the responsibility of Surdra but the country is responsible for its own internal defense and free to maintain its own foreign relations and set its own government policies without approval of the Surdran government. Should also be mentioned that Surdra is very much a maritime country. Given the spread-out nature of the Kingdom Surdra has a vested interest in maintaining strong open waterways but also in particular the maintaining of two of the world's most important canals. The Columbian canal in the west and the Menda canal in the middle east, our versions of the Panama and Suez canals respectively.

Now how is the internal relationship of the nation currently? well depending on who you ask it can range from very solid to strained relations. The nation as it currently stands is a relatively new creation. The modern nation traces its current constitution to 1772, but the current nation as it currently stands was only formed in 1967 with the passage of the Federal Provinces Act when the various countries and territories were fully integrated into a new federal government. Surdra is also still recovering from a long period of internal strife and civil war known as The Troubles that ran for most of the later part of the 20th century. No part of the Kingdom was not affected by these series of civil wars and local insurrections. These conflicts were only ceased by a combination of political reforms, political and military crackdowns, and concessions from the central government in Avalon. Not only has this period of military conflict and internal strife affected the internal stability of the nation it has also made the population, particularly those back in Surdra, war weary and afraid of engaging in prolonged military conflicts. From the late 1970s and throughout most of the 1980s surgery has been focused mostly on rebuilding and solidifying its own internal stability, but also rebuilding the faith in its military and central government that was lost during these conflicts. Much like the USA after Vietnam and the UK after the 1950s.

Externally, Surdra faces two major opponents to its East. In Eastern Europe is the communist USSCR and the nations of the Atovatski Pact. The USSCR forms the primary political force that opposes Surdra in the post-World War Two 20th century. Most of Surdra’s political efforts in the post war world have been in the containment and the opposition to the communist revolutions led by the USSR. The other major external opponent that Surdra faces is the Empire of Kannex in the Far East. The Empire has in the aftermath of World War Two managed to defeat the communist forces in the civil war and has now formed the third part of the Cold War between the three superpowers. In the West you have the Democratic Kingdom Surdra, in the Eastern Europe you have the communist USSR, and then in the Far East you have the imperialistic Empire Kannex.

But Surdra is not alone. Surdra has several allies around the world, the largest two groups being the countries that make up the Alliance of the North Medius Ocean (ANMO) and the Remus Ocean Treaty Alliance (ROTA). Surdra is also a founding member of the Alliance of Nations and a permanent member of the Security Council. All three of these organizations aid Surdra in projecting soft power to counteract the influence of its two main rivals. Also, both alliances allow Surdra to refocus its own military to be more effective rather than having to maintain long term large deployments of troops to counteract both opposing forces.

Lastly, it also has to be mentioned that Surdra is a nuclear armed country. She possesses a large stockpile of both strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, ICBMs, and submarine launched missiles. This aids Surdra in a layer of strategic defense as it allows it to maintain a very powerful deterrence, however both of Surdra’s main rivals are also nuclear armed nations Thus limiting its ability to employ said weapons.

So, what does this all mean well all these factors are going to affect the political and military goals that the nation has the same way that these the current situation of your own countries will affect the overall goals that your own militaries have. A military first and foremost exists to defend a nation, but its goals are usually more complex. The exact goal of a military directly corresponds to your nation's geopolitical situation, its enemies or potential enemies, foreign policy, and national resources. To use continue using Surdra as an example, Surdra’s military goals, or doctrine, consists of the following points:


• Defend the Nation and its territories from both external and internal threats.
• Defensive on the strategic level, no territorial ambitions.
• Containment of communism.
• Opposing imperialism in the Far East.
• Desire to avoid war by political means and a credible deterrent posture.
• Prevent the escalation of conflicts with the USSCR and Kannex.
• Prevent the use and development of nuclear weapons.
• Project and protect Surdran interests around the globe
• Maintaining the freedom of navigation throughout the world’s seas.
• Determine the outcome of war quickly and decisively.
• Combating terrorism.
• Very low casualty ratio.