Ms. Koike Introduced National Strength Equation
(Mme Koike a présenté force nationale équation)
Former Minister of Defense Ms. Yuriko Koike introduced the following equation, in her interesting memoir published last Saturday.
http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/htm/4166606026.html
Pp = ( C + E + M ) * ( S + W)
Pp: National strength
C: Population and land size
E: Economy
M: Military power
S: Strategy
W: Will of enforcement
She wrote that the above equation was originally worked out by a former US CIA deputy director.
In short, the national strength is decided by potential of hardware multiplied by potential of software of the nation.
Nonetheless, based on experiences, if you just rely on this sort of thinking, you would wonder, like a certain former US Secretary of Treasury, why Japan has not failed while Latin American nations have failed economically.
They only observe the world horizontally without vertical analysis along the time and history.
Even in market analysis, you need a record of performance and the stock price over ten years for each company.
I rather propose that you refer to the Internet protocol architecture with seven layers.
http://networking.ringofsaturn.com/Protocols/sevenlayer.php
In analogy with the telecommunications software technology, systems and functions of a nation can be viewed in the following way:
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#7 layer: Vision, aspirations, and holy destiny
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#6 layer: Economy, military power, and operation
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#5 layer: Technology and business infrastructure
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#4 layer: Religion, education, social and legal systems
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#3 layer: Historical performance and racial traditions
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#2 layer: Population, geographic conditions, and potentials
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#1 layer: Quality of the people and cultural superiority
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(Note: Every layer should be assigned a specific value to.)
Since national strength is not absolute measure but relative measure, you have to compare each country with one another at each layer.
When the scheme of the above layer structure is expressed as F:
Y = Effective national strength under the situation "x"
Y= F (x)
"F ( )" consists of the above seven layers, but "x" might mainly work on a certain layer(s).
For example, "F (war on terror)" of the U.S. may be lower than "F (war on terror)" of Japan, especially due to the Japan's merit at the "7th layer."
(Ex. Y = 60 for the U.S., while Y = 80 for Japan in terms of the war on terror.)
As I have not enough time now, some of you may extend this idea, so that we can avoid adoption of the CIA version of the "National Strength Equation."
* * *
In addition, US Embassy in Tokyo will probably unofficially translate this book Former Minister of Defense Ms. Yuriko Koike has written for herself and published after her departure from the Japanese Defense Ministry two months ago.
It is because there are some descriptions on US Secretaries of State and Defense.
Here again as a proof that Ms. Yuriko Koike has at least something to say, though nowadays many rising politicians are using their blogs to meet the need of democracy and their own causes or faith, whatever:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%A5%B3%E5%AD%90%E3%81%AE%E6%9C%AC%E6%87%90%E2%80%95%E5%B8%82%E3%83%B6%E8%B0%B7%E3%81%AE55%E6%97%A5-%E6%96%87%E6%98%A5%E6%96%B0%E6%9B%B8-602-%E5%B0%8F%E6%B1%A0-%E7%99%BE%E5%90%88%E5%AD%90/dp/4166606026
(Anyway, I respect any courage to tackle a national issue, if it is devoid of malice, though Ms. Yuriko Koike is Japanese and very Japanese, exclusively.
http://homepage.mac.com/chansons/1968/vartan/index.html )
"...Love your neighbors as you love yourself..."
(...Liebe deinen Mitmenschen wie dich selbst...)