Manoka History and Information
Manoka is a country with a population of approximately 412 million people, spanning several hundred Islands and independent districts, most formerly countries themselves (now known as semi-autonomous states). Manoka formed when several east Asian countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, New Guinea, and many other small Island nations (along with Taiwan) banded together for military defense reasons, largely to resist the attacks of Russia and the opportunistic attacks by North Korea, as well as to form an economic Alliance on par with the EU.
After their success in thwarting the attacks of the Russian and North Korean invasions, Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea, and many other places are now under the responsibility of Manoka, who is trying to rebuild their wartorn countries, in addition to the enemies they conquered. Manoka now currently serves as the right arm of the United Nations and the free world, serving beside the United State's in this role, receiving substantial financial and military support from the U.S. for the ongoing world crisis's, largely acting as a proxy for them in this respect.
Manoka was Formed
To begin with, Manoka was a loose affiliation of South Pacific and Indian Ocean countries banding together more intensely to defend themselves from the aggressive activities from their immediate neighbors and in response to their continued. While the official Russian invasion was presented as an attempt to fight terrorism, largely in response to the renewed Al-Qaeda activities in the Philippines, Russian quickly caused more damage to the country than the terrorists and attempted to take over the local countries. Fearing a backlash if the U.S. was directly involved in yet another politically sensitive invasion, involving Russia and the Ukraine, Moldova, and the following opportunistic attacks by North Korea, the U.S. decided to be indirectly involved by providing the newly formed alliance with goods, money, and production capabilities to keep the enemy countries contained and unable to attack their neighbors. While the threat of a U.S. invasion deterred, but did not stop an eventual full fledged attack by the larger aggressor country's, it gave valuable time to prepare a military response by the newly formed Manokan alliance, and under direct U.S. assistance, to form and strengthen an alliance in the region which would not greatly require immediate or direct assistance of the United State's or illicit a major political response. Despite this, the growing military strength of the Manokan State's stood as a jest to Russia and the south Asian alliances, which practically invited them to attack the developing military power (and in turn served as bait to redirect the attention of the Chinese to the South Pacific states, which would consume a large portion of their country). In addition, by allying themselves with Taiwan, they only further angered the Chinese, who began to sanction and place embargoes on the newly formed alliance.
At first, it was incredibly difficult for the fledgling nations of the Manokan forces to forge a capable resistance the invasion, requiring extensive cooperation, strategies, and limited controversial air support by the Americans. As the situation progressed, with many treaties signed and subsequently violated which halted the advance of the aggressing forces (now partially including part of Mongolia) it continually became easier for the Manokan forces to fight back, gaining military goods and other equipment from the U.S. and other countries, but more importantly a well unified military structure, under several central command units, operating as a single unit. In several heavily publicized well thwarted attacks, the general invading forces was stopped in a few key major advances by the Russian and North Koreans, as well as a surprise attack by China to the south (which was summarily crushed), as they tried to directly invade the primary Island nations of Manoka. Largely as a result of their training and the addition of new equipment, as well as their ability to predict the assault by the invading forces, the resistance to Russia and North Korea was fairly successful; while the D-Day beach style landing was a failure on the part of North Korea, it proved catastrophic when this further cut their forces off from returning home and from their supply lines, leaving the invading forces with little choice but to surrender or die as they would quickly run out of food and other supplies. Essentially, by stopping what was seen as the chance for a speedy invasion, Manoka essentially had the majority of the invading forces, and the military of the home countries, trapped between the ocean, starvation, and utter annihilation by the Manokan army, which strategically defeated their forces on a massive scale and left them with little option but to sign favorable treaties for Manoka, and retreat. As a result of their strengthened relationship with each other, and their major military successes, the Manokan alliance was legitimized as a full fledged fighting force. Despite initial reluctance to increasing the strength of the organization, mostly as a desire to keep a national identity, the effectiveness of the Manokan fighting force could not be be denied, and as a result practically became an obligation by the South Pacific countries.
Over the years, the loose affiliation grew even stronger as their continued victory's uplifted the morale of their country's and slowly ablated the morale from their enemies, inciting national pride and belief in the strength of the unity of the Manokan alliance. Drawn together, with their fates almost cemented in the military cooperation, the seamlessly integrated Manokan Naval Command solidified itself as a defense force for the Island nations, and the world.
Arguably, the Manokan military is closer and more integrated than the nations themselves. The serve as a united force for defense and the well being of South Asia, and the world.
Future of Manoka
By 2026, Manoka had formed and become well established, even in the international community and created a powerful alliance with the U.S. Despite fighting for a noble cause, their large military and substantial donations by the Americans and United Nation's caused some concern in the region based on their raw power; while their military forces were expensive, the arms build up created some concern that these forces could quickly become dangerous, and that they also were consuming generous portions of other country's funds, that were afraid of being absorbed into the union, which had already challenged the independence of the South Asian states. In addition, while the territories were legally obtained in the Manokan wars, there was some concern that the Manokan alliance would take over the individual states they had captured, with fears of the potential mistreatment in the rebuilding process.
As a result, Manoka offered to provide military assistance to future global conflicts, and agreed to treaties creating separate nations for their previously captured territories, such as Vietnam and Cambodia. Despite transferring rulers, moving to a more democratic system, they still retained their initial identities and territories. In part due to these rebuilding efforts, and support in the international community, superseding the U.S. in some areas (mostly the south Pacific and South East Asia) Manoka is now seen largely as a benevolent giant, formed in a defensive war, and an avid supporter in the world stage politics, of the allies. Despite extensively following United Nation's law, they nonetheless reserve the right for less conventional methods, such as the use of chemical or nuclear weapons.
In an effort to preserve the strength of the alliance, and generally be beneficial, economic policies were implemented across the nations, which greatly improved the welfare of the county's citizens. While there was some initial resistance to unify under a single political and economic theory, the mixed economy of the region proved to greatly uplift the countries general wellbeing. The obligated alliance during war time lead to substantially improved quality of living, and thus created favor for it's preservation, in addition to it's general respect in the international community. Being somewhat socialist, and very similar to Switzerland's economy, it is notable that much of it's electric power is provided by nuclear sources, such as uranium and Thorium (which is also present in high concentrations in the region). In addition, while they have made great advances in scientific progress, as a developing nation they are equal parts agriculture, industry, manufacturing, and technological sectors. In terms of manufacturing, they now produce the majority of the United State's manufacturing goods, instead of China, and due to their favored political status and ethical stand points, are now much more ideal to the U.S. economy, which has additionally begun to improve. As a result of this and their shifting political role as the "world police", the United States has thrown behind significant support for the Manokan Naval Command.
Manoka is seen largely as a progressive country, with a strong central government, and a number of experimental political systems. There is a national bank of Manoka, which handles the majority of the civilian loans, which are incredibly low interest (due to their non-profit nature), and a handful of non-governmental businesses. While this does allow some foreign influx of money into the country, it's largely designed to provide cheap loans with low interest rates to the average person of the country, despite being dependent, commercially, on larger world banks. The mixed economy has about 55% social sectors with 45% private, and provides free or assisted healthcare services, as well as a social security program. In essence, roughly 55% of the economy is controlled by the government, in a form of socialism, while 45% of the economy is dominated by the private sector, or NGO's. Not true socialism or capitalism, it's seen as a compromise between the two, with government institutions providing low cost goods for the average person, and being in control of key natural resources (such as iron, oil, thorium etc.) and private sector goods usually fulfilling niche roles or providing high quality goods. Mining rights, resource control and the like are almost entirely in control of by the government, who distributes these resources as seen fit. There is also close cooperation with the agricultural sector of the country, which despite largely being private, works closely with the government to ensure everyone is well fed.
United Manokan Naval Command
While the Manokan Navy has a heavy emphasis on infantry and small unit tactics, being predominately Island based nations, they fundamentally are based on waterborne and Naval tactics. Being a quick deployable immediate strike capable force, they have extensive amphibious and beach landing capabilities, designed specifically to transport troops between Islands, and around the world. Despite their somewhat lower technological capabilities compared to the rest of the world, they possess advanced technology in key areas in part due to international support, such as with armor and infantry weapons, which allow the endurance and longevity of smaller forces to give them considerable advantages over other infantry, in which they take very few casualties. This, combined with their general speed, allows them to not only quickly respond to threats, but also potentially resist wars that would quickly turn into quagmires, generating immense political favor both domestically and internationally for their response to global situations. As a result, many country's have given financial assistance and allowed training in their country's, such as in India, where extremely harsh environments, from high mountains to the rainforest, to the monsoon rains allow for great exposure to potential world threats.
There are approximately 2 million individuals within the Manokan Navy, with approximately 1.5 million active duty troops, and 500,000 reserve troops. While military training is not mandatory, local militias have formed in response to the pooled military resources, and thus a greater potential pool of soldiers can be gathered from, of which many are recruited into the Manokan Navy. Due to the lower than average pay in the region, the Manokan Military has a reputation for treating it's soldier's well, despite not spending much money, whom are generally well paid and make slightly above average pay for the region. Taxes are not necessary for members of the Manokan forces, and a result of standardized healthcare being preformed by the Manokan military itself, many of the benefits are much cheaper to implement than in standard civilian practices.
The force can at times serve as police for the region. On many high profile cases, involving terrorists, pirates, or dangerous or important individuals, military SWAT and forensics teams can be called to monitor or provide assistance for local military. In most hostile situations, there are usually called in, making the Manokan forces involvement in police affairs quite frequent. In this way, the military and police of the country can be seen as an integrated force, unlike the U.S., which has a distinct separation of powers due to posse comitatus. While military service is not considered mandatory in the Manokan alliance, it is abnormally high, in large part due to the fact that militia service is mandatory. For all able bodied citizens, they must undergo 18-24 months of training and service in the militia, largely learning trade skills, such as first aid, how to fire a weapon, basic carpentry and introduction into mechanics and welding, and provide public services, such as picking up litter, building homes, or offering services to the homeless.
While not considered the best or largest military in the world, the Manokan military does have a reputation for being one of the most highly trained. With a 16 week basic training program, one of the longest in the world (compared to 9 for the army, and 13 for the marines) all Manokan forces undergo infantry training as a result of basic training, and AIT focuses more heavily in this arena. Marines in the Manokan forces undergo both waterborne and airborne training, breaking the mold of many countries, which see their airborne forces as unique or prestigious, due to their small numbers. This is in part achieved by the use of more efficient airborne delivery techniques, such as gliders instead of parachutes for the main method of landing, which are much softer when hitting the ground and are less likely to cause accidents, and vastly improved VTOL, such as the MV-64. After basic training and infantry training, virtually all Manokan infantry forces undergo Jungle warfare training, Mountain, Urban, and Desert training, in large part undergone both in the indigenous regions of the Philippines, and India, where the rainforests and monsoons provide some of the harshest environments on the planet. Soldiers train both with mechanized vehicles and on foot, both with and without exoskeleton support structures. They do extensive training in marine beach Island hopping, as they are largely centered in Island training. Artic training is strangely however not part of regular training, although winter training as a result of desert and mountainous environments are of course touched upon. While a conventional army, the forces largely focus on infantry, Guerrilla warfare, counter insurgency, and Naval based operations. There is a heavy emphasis on counter-terrorism related activities in their counter insurgency training. There is an enormous amount of cross training, from combat medic training, to chemical warfare training, to radio, mortar, and artillery training, and individual roles such as marksmen, SAW, and grenadier being cross trained with. In addition, most soldiers will go through Scout Sniper and Special forces training, despite the fact most will drop out; the theory is that the exposure to the training, even if the soldier's score lowly their first time through, will give them the ability to think outside the box and apply a multitude of different methods to solve a problem, learn the other's roles and how to best interact with each other, as well as gain a skillset form the training they generally might not have had otherwise. In general, Manokan training takes 12-24 months to complete, and in general each soldier has several years of experience, training relentlessly in the down time, in the arduous terrain of both India and the Philippines.
The UMNC and UNSC are essentially interchangeable terms, and the terms are used widely both both civilian and military forces. The United Manokan Naval Command and United Naval Security Command are both terms used synonymously to described the United Manokan Naval Forces. The UNSC terminology is essentially a relic from the pre-Manokan era, although the SEADP treaty (South-East-Asian Defense Pact) is still in effect making the term UNSC and UMNC both applicable to the military of the country. The UNSC originally formed as a mutual-defense pact between various south-east Asian countries, similar to NATO or the allied forces in WWII. Due to their successes in combat and a single identity which had been forged during the chaotic times, the patriotic spirit of the Manokan people lead them to form a single, unified Manokan country, instead of a loose military alliance between countries. While the UMNC does most of the fighting in all of it's conflicts, two countries other than Manoka (Taiwan and Brunei) still exist within the UNSC, who ultimately did not ratify the treaty to join Manoka as a country and have thus retained their independence. Technically, the UMNC is just an organization that works within the UNSC, although the largely non-existent military action of these two smaller countries within the UNSC framework makes their actions largely irrelevant. As both terms are still in effect, the terms UNSC and UMNC are both technically valid to describe the military force, and by a technicality the UMNC is actually a derivative of the UNSC.
