Join the new world

I have been meaning to write this for quite a while, but I failed to get around to it till now.

I would like to present my concept for a regional Oceania–South-/South-East/East Asia alliance with both defensive and economic purposes.

Potential members would include:

• Republic of China (Taiwan)
• Philippines
• Malaysia
• Australia
• Japan
• India
• New Zealand
• Singapore
• People’s Republic of China
• North Korea

Defence:

A lot of countries in the region share a common enemy: Indonesia. Australia is often the victim of PTOs and invasions (Western Australia is still under Indonesian control at the time of writing) emanating from Her, the sovereignty of Malaysia and Thailand is violated by their southern neighbour ever so often, and even the relatively faraway Japan recently experienced an Indonesian PTO (although it largely ended in failure). Indonesia is undoubtedly a threat to all of Her neighbours, which continue to prove easy targets due to their feeble military strength and small populations. Therefore it would surely be in the interest of all of them to competently encircle Her, in order to be able to pressure the islands from two or more sides and to set up a common, coordinated defence against any hostile military and political actions.

The two Chinas, Japan, India, New Zealand, and Korea are all located far enough from Indonesia to not need to worry about being directly threatened; they could maintain MPPs with the nations in the middle of the conflict herd and back them up in case of a war. Meanwhile, it might be wise if Malaysia leased from Thailand (which is currently under Serbian political control) Southern Thailand; this way, the alliance could focus its MPPs on Malaysia and Australia, not wasting valuable GOLD and resources on an unfocused and hard to defend front spanning 5 nations. Malaysia and Australia could thus encircle their enemy, one able to open up a new front in case of an invasion of the other, and be backed by their northern allies.

Even if India manages to free Herself from Pakistani occupation, the flames of war will surely continue to simmer after the Dioists have been driven out of Hindustan. Although India is siding Herself with the Brolliance and EDEN, I doubt either will be readily willing to spare a lot of resources for a conflict they will not consider to be of any real importance, meaning India would surely appreciate a few loyal allies willing to help out. Allies who, in turn, would themselves benefit from an MPP as it would give them access to a lot of free “training” battles.


Economy:

Save for China, it can be said—although the Philippines for example are doing relatively well—that the countries of the South China Sea are some of the poorest in the entire eWorld. Although the only thing that can alleviate this in the long run is a baby boom, I nonetheless think that economic cooperation on a large scale would be beneficial for all nations involved.

A basic necessity for a flourishing economy is cheap access to raw materials: such will lower the price of the final product and allow employees to pay their workers more while still remaining competitive. Many countries in the Pacific Ocean lack vital resources like Grain, but at the same time all raw materials are present with at least 1 High region: Grain in Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India, and China; Oil in Malaysia, the Philippines, and China; Iron in China and India; Stone in Malaysia and India; and Titanium in Australia.

My idea is to encourage investments in other countries of this hypothetical alliance. For example, an entrepreneur running a moving ticket company in Taiwan expresses his or her interest to create an oil company somewhere to export back to Taiwan. Iran (random example) is currently the best location for such an enterprise due to low wages, but the alliance (or the governments of either or both Taiwan and the Philippines) offer him/her a small subsidy or a loan with little to no interest if he/she instead creates an oil company on the Philippines. This way, the money made and the taxes paid would stay within the alliance, new jobs would be created on the Philippines where the wages would thus rise, and Taiwan would gain another supplier of cheap oil which would nourish the moving ticket industry there.

If this was done on a larger scale, tariffs within the alliance could be lowered to facilitate trade leading to greater profits, cheaper products, and better paid jobs, the wealth could be evenly distributed by always directing willing investors to the countries that need them the most, and in the end—hopefully—the conditions in all member states would improve and their populations and governments gradually become more affluent.

The production of army supplies could also be distributed and organised among the alliance members, to lessen the financial and logistic burden of each nation having to run its own state companies to supply their military. An oil company run by the Filipino military could thus send their oil over to Taiwan, where the production of a moving ticket company would then be shared again with the military of the Philippines, or sold to Australia which would pay both the Philippines and Taiwan in helicopters and tanks.

Furthermore, the nation banks could offer to exchange currency for currency directly, to save company owners with businesses spanning two nations the hassle of needing to exchange the money they earn in one country for GOLD just to exchange that again to pay their workers in another one.


Structure:

I will admit, I was an admirer of Sol. Though weak and hardly able to defend itself, it held up the much neglected virtues of neutrality, peace, and diplomacy. Nevertheless, this also led to stagnancy; it is therefore that I do not propose a solely defensive alliance. If Japan and North Korea wish to dissect South Korea, or if India eventually seeks vengeance against Pakistan, then the alliance should not deny them these wishes if the situation allows for it.
But only then. I’ve seen in EDEN (when I was in Canada) how member states created unnecessary fronts in different corners of the world or needlessly attacked neighbours due to old feuds or simple boredom, depriving their allies of their manpower when it was actually needed to defend another member, or to achieve a long‐term goal in a large-scale operation. This was dumb, and although I see the necessity to allow and help member states to conduct wars they simply lust for, when and how these will be fought must be decided by an authority that oversees the general war efforts of the alliance and can thus wisely decide when such a battle would disrupt more important operations, and when it would be safe to tackle.

While I have not yet given this aspect too much thought, I could sketch an administration split into four departments:

• A council that meets regularly or whenever the need arises and includes the Presidents or Vice Presidents of all member states, who decide on the general policies and course of the alliance.[/li]
• A military leadership responsible for ensuing the greatest possible efficiency of the joint military, laying out strategies and wielding the authority to make sure that everything is streamlined and orders are followed without selfish or opportunistic deviation.
• An economic council consisting of the Ministers of Economy (or chosen representatives) of all member states overseeing trade within the region, granting aid or loans to members in trouble, and ensuing that raw materials and products are sufficiently available and priced everywhere.
‐ This assembly could have a subsidiary of a handful of elected people responsible for directing investors to certain member nations, giving out loans and grants, setting exchange rates, and basically executing the orders of the above main economic council.
• A diplomatic corps made up from a small number of diplomats nominated and elected by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the alliance; their duty would be to observe the situation around the world and to give advise to the Presidents’ and military councils on when it would be wise or unwise to make certain moves and how to sensibly appease other powers, or to warn them if they are about to decide on something which could accidentally affront a powerful or important country or bloc.