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Okay, so while I was in Berlin with my host brother I remarked to him that the Republicans in the USA like to start wars in order to fuel the military-industrial complex. But then another idea popped into my head.
Would it be possible to sustain an economy, or at least prop it up, through the perpetuation of low-level, non-threatening (in a geopolitical sense) warfare? Here's some things that one would hypothetically do in making "military" a viable economic sector:
- Spend a good amount of money on military development, including technology and doctrine. The tech can help other sectors of the economy.
- Field a small standing army consisting of professionals. Conscripts are a no-no because they would lead to dissent in the long term.
- Find some places to intervene and fight! At least 1.5 conflicts should be in progress at any given time.
- On the home front, take control of the media and convince people that the wars are for justice, for peace, whatever. At the same time, develop social programs (education, health) for the military that can be slowly extended to families of soldiers, those working in support roles to the military etc.
-- The above leads to the national feeling of "People and Soldiers are United!", particularly through the army-based socialism.
- Spoils of War. You might not be able to convince the population to support some endless, meaningless war just by saying "it's good", so make sure the population actually feels like there's progress being made, by actually winning the wars, bringing stability to the region, thus helping one's own nation indirectly.
-- In addition, the above makes sure that the "military" sector of the economy isn't just for show, and that real gains can be made through the MI complex. This sets a military optimized for the economy apart from the conventional view that "you can't eat a tank".

Now I'm no expert in any field. If the above is complete, unsustainable bullcrap, I would be glad to hear why.
Secondly, I do not advocate continuous warfare. I just want to see if a government of some kind* could actually sustain economic success through an "economically-optimized military effort".

Thoughts?
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