I’m pretty sure that “North Korean Threat” is the real-life reason why South Korea has such a remarkable National Service policy, and that “Immediate Neighbor Threat” is why South Korea and Israel have such remarkable National Service policies compared to other democracies without immediately threatening neighbors with a recent history of major wars, and that in these cases, retaining the ability to mobilize the civilian population for a major war does in fact help to mitigate regional threats.
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If I just have a large people in reserve does that deter invasion? That didn’t work for Israel. It was only when they implemented hard security, nuclear weapons and a large standing army (which no doubt National Service allows), maybe National Service should increase military spending which has an indirect impact on the North Korean Threat.
If I just have a large people in reserve does that deter invasion?
Yes. Capacity to mobilize increases war readiness, war readiness deters invasion from rational actors.
The deterrence is not absolute.
To your point, “Nuclear Weapons” should also have an effect on “North Korean Threat”, potentially nullifying it. “Foreign Relations” should probably not have an effect, as foreign relations with the sort of countries that give you tourism, foreign trade and investment, are very different from foreign relations with North Korea.
I would almost like to see the “Foreign Relations” metric eliminated in favor of “Western Relations” and “Eastern Relations”, with the latter representing relations with the Russia/China bloc. A nuclear weapons policy in Japan or in Korea would deteriorate their relations with the West, but improve them with the East, in the sense that it would stabilize their potential for aggression.
Reserves in of themselves don’t translate to deterrance. I may have a million people in reserve, but if I can’t arm, feed and clothe, it doesn’t make a difference. After invasion if I can do all those things, then it makes a difference.
Adding a western v eastern relations, I’m not against, but that should be left up to the modders, perhaps you could mod that in.
As for nuclear weapons, yes that should reduce the North Korean Threat.
Maintaining adequate reserves of equipment is implied in the concept of a national reserve. Most countries have reserve armies, and these have some full-time employees, maintaining the command structure and patrolling the weapons depots and so on. The only conceptual difference here, is that with the “National Service” policy, a second tier reserve army is created and everyone is drafted into it.
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