NationStates Jolt Archive

it has been stated many times that the normal military size is .5% - 5% of population.

this is not necessarly true.

several countries have compulsory (manditory) military service.

for example, Israel has a population of 6,276,883 (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/is.html#People) and a total military force of 2,936,041 (males age 17-49: 1,492,125 females age 17-49: 1,443,916)

as you can see Israels military is 46% of their population, 10x higher than the assumed percentages.

Finland also has compulsory service, population of 5,223,442, military size of 1,121,275 for a total of 21% per capita.

i fail to see how the size in game is assumed to be so low when it real terms it is much higher.

Example: I currently have a population of 124 million and military service is manditory, I do not see why it wouldnt possible for me to have on hand a force of at least 50 million, which is quite far below real world percentages.

it has been stated many times that the normal military size is .5% - 5% of population.

this is not necessarly true.

several countries have compulsory (manditory) military service.

for example, Israel has a population of 6,276,883 (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/is.html#People) and a total military force of 2,936,041 (males age 17-49: 1,492,125 females age 17-49: 1,443,916)

as you can see Israels military is 46% of their population, 10x higher than the assumed percentages.

Finland also has compulsory service, population of 5,223,442, military size of 1,121,275 for a total of 21% per capita.

i fail to see how the size in game is assumed to be so low when it real terms it is much higher.

Example: I currently have a population of 124 million and military service is manditory, I do not see why it wouldnt possible for me to have on hand a force of at least 50 million, which is quite far below real world percentages.
Not everyone in those ages is actually in the military. It is true in Isreal that you are required to have a certain number of years of service starting from a certain age (I don't remember the specifics). The rest of the time through a later age (I don't remember the age) you are part of the reserve and can be called up in crisis, but are not part of the active military.

Edit: Jewish men in Israel are only required compulsory service of 36 months, women 21 months. Then they are in the reserve force, but not the active force. Israel has RARELY called upon this reserve force (in fact, the only time I know of is when they were invaded in 1973, other than that, the government has never done a massive call of that reserve force to my knowledge).
In addition, the number for military manpower you are using from the CIA factbook is defined, by the CIA factbook itself, as all of the men and women in the country ages 17-49 who are healthy enough to be fit for service. It is not a measure of who is in the military, or who is in the reserves, simply who is healthy enough to serve.

That same factbook entry for the United States is about 67 million men (unlike Israel, it does not show women). Therefore, I would wstimate the total, with women, to be 140 million. This is nearly half the US population, and I can tell you, there are not 140 million people in the US military.

NationStates is NOT Real Life. It is mostly freeform roleplay.

You're free to roleplay your military as you like, but beware of being accused of godmodding.

The military doesn't really play in the game except for your defence budget....
This is more of a discussion for NS2...

The military doesn't really play in the game except for your defence budget....
This is more of a discussion for NS2...
hardly
If he is going to roleplay, then he needs to have a realistic size for a military

If he is going to roleplay, then he needs to have a realistic size for a military
This is a roleplay issue, not a technical issue. It's up to your roleplay partners what an acceptable level of military would be.

NationStates does not impose a specific size to any nation's military. There is no game code being modified or discussed. If you want to discuss this, open a topic in International Incidents or NationStates. This one is closed.