League of United Sovereign States

Wallace Blissex, the current representative to the Pureuda Cooperation Organization was the first to rise. Assuming that Roberts' Rules of Order were in effect, he addressed Mr. Mantado as the Chairman of the proceedings.

"Mr. Chairman," he began. "A point of order for clarification if I may? Are we to understand that this body will replace or reorganize the P.C.O.? Or is the U.L.S.S. a supplemental body to the P.C.O.? In either case, I propose the following two articles, originally proposed in the P.C.O., be adapted:

Preamble: The nations undersigned

Recognizing the need for international cooperation to provide for peace and defense from aggression;

Understanding that a common body politic is necessary to the advancement of our cultures and societies;

Desiring to expand trade and international commerce as well as human rights do propose that this League of United Sovereign States be formed and adapt the following charter:

Article 1. The voting body will be comprised of all members of the League. All member nations of the League, when sitting in unison, shall be referred to as the General Assembly of the League of United Sovereign States.

The General Assembly will have the sole authority to form panels and commissions. Exclusive of the Security Council, the General Assembly will have the sole power to inspect other nations for violations of international law; decide on the admission and expulsion of new members to the League; and to elect the Secretary General. They shall also have the sole authority to form permanent agencies of the League, for humanitarian and other non-military purposes.

The General Assembly may issue resolutions to use military force. However, in order for said resolutions to be binding, they must be approved by a majority of the Security Council.

Article 2. The Security Council shall have 6 members, 4 of whom will be permanent. The permanent members shall include: Kannex, Mutantatia, Guy, and Malecia. This is in recognition of their prior efforts in the P.C.O., and their mutual desire to promote peace and international cooperation. The remaining two seats will be filled by elections, and the General Assembly will vote on those appointments. The Security Council will also vote in those elections as members of the General Assembly. No nation can be elected to consecutive terms, but any nation can serve as many terms as they may win in elections.

The Security Council will be responsible for military actions, peacekeeping, and the establishment of international sanctions, all through the adaption of resolutions. All resolutions will be by the majority. In the event there is a tie, the Secretary General will be called on as a tie-breaker.

Because of their responsibilities, the Security Council's permanent members, in addition to being barred from serving as Secretary-General, will not be permitted to form inspection teams, or lead said teams. However, they may serve on said teams in an advisory capacity, and may suggest the formation of different commissions and inspection teams.

Article 3. In the event that an incumbent is not challenged in an election for the seat held, that member may serve a consecutive term.

Article 4. The Secretary General will moderate the Security Council during its deliberations. The Secretary General will carry out the tasks as directed by the Security Council. No permanent member of the Security Council shall ever serve as Secretary-General. It shall be the responsibility of the Secretary General to compile the reports from the several commissions of the League and to present commission reports to the General Assembly.

Mr. Chairman, I also propose that when the charter is finalized, a poll vote be taken to adapt or reject the charter. I yield the remainder of my time to the Chair"

(OoC: Note that there is a separate thread that contains a complete first draft of the charter).

The Birodalman delegate, Kajetán Sárközy, said
"We have no objections to the charter, but we have a question. Considering that Guy has not done much internationally, why is he a permanent member instead of another, more active nation such as Takaram, Globexanter or ourselves?"
"Also, I think that this organisation should apply to both domestic and international problems."

The Globexian Delegate, Patrice Pellnell cleared her throat and stood up.

"Personally I do not know why Globexanter is classed as a temporary member, even thought we have participated in most of the P.C.O. led battles. We have lost many lives for the P.C.O. matters, yet we are not regarded as a full member?" she said.

"We understand that, but what you have just stated is exactly what the Malecian Delegate has just 'chosen' on how to choose the permanent member." she answered.

Mr. Wallace Blissex's passionate speech, unfortunately, was no heard by the Kannexian delegation, nor any Kannexian delegation; for there was none at the League of United Sovereign States.

The Imperial Government of the Empire of Kannex, perceiving what it recognized as weakness and naïveté in the proposed organization, had declined the invitation to attend. Kannex had desired a more martial and united military alliance rather than a decentralized peace organization.

Malecia, recognizing the importance of Kannex's participation in regional events, pleads that Kannex reconsider. The League could work just as well as the P.C.O., in that there is a mechanism for unified military action, should it become necessary, to protect fellow League members.

Malecia thus proposes the following amendment be added to the charter as Article 5:

Deployment of military Forces:

§1.Nations voting to use military force will be required to commit military assets to the League. Said assets will fall under the direct oversight of the League commander, who will in turn be appointed by the Secretary General, and confirmed by the General Assembly.

§2. Military forces will only be deployed upon a majority vote of the Security Council. Votes to deploy forces will only be taken under the following circumstances:

(a) At the request of the Secretary General. Should the Secretary General deem that League intervention may be necessary to protect a member state, the Secretary General will, at his or her discretion, request a Security Council Resolution to deploy forces to assist said nation.

(b) Security Council Resolution. The Security Council may, on its own initiative, resolve to deploy forces to assist a member state or protect a member state.

(c) By Resolution of the General Assembly. Should the General Assembly resolve that a military deployment is necessary, the Security Council will be obliged to vote on the G.A.'s resolution to deploy forces.

§2:Thus, if the need to deploy arises, the process would work as follows:

(a)Within 72 hours of a Security Council Resolution to deploy military forces, a vote will be held in the General Assembly. Any nation voting to support the Security Council's actions may be required to send additional troops to aid the Security Council's member states.

(b)The Secretary General will in turn appoint a Commander for the operation, to be chosen from one of the Security Council's member states. The Commander will then be confirmed by the Security Council.

(c) The Commander will, at previously agreed upon times, periodically update the Secretary General of all on-going military operations and the Secretary will in turn brief the General Assembly in accordance with Article 4 of this charter.

Malecia also proposes the following additions to Article 4.

§1. Within the Office of the Secretariat, overseen by the Secretary-General, there shall be an Office of the Solicitor. The Solicitor will

(a) Interpret the Resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council for all members;

(b) Write Advisory opinions as necessary for the Secretary General and, with approval from the Secretary General, write advisory opinions for the Security Council when requested;

(c) Interpret other treaties for the General assembly and the Secretary General;

(d) Advise the Security Council on the legality of any and all military actions it may take.

Malecia also asks the Chair once again for clarification as to if the LUSS is to be a successor organization to the P.C.O. or if it is to be considered a sister organization to that body?

(OoC: I'm working on a first draft off-line that I will put up. You guys can then deliberate it and order modifications and I will change it as you deem necessary and appropriate.)

(OOC: To clarify: The LUSS has nothing to do with the PCO)

IC:
Mantado spoke again. "It seems to me we are drifting towards an organization that will, once again, be military based. I propose a simpler solution. The votes are nonbinding; when the need to deploy is approved of by the General Assembly, only those that wish to participate will."

''We also support Mr.Mantado. I have a suggestion on a much more peaceful subject. If there are going to be summits of the LUSS i suggest they be every time in another country while the general business be conducted from here ( I assume we are in Mutanatia).''

"The permanent headquarters can be in Mutanatia. We don't mind that. However, congresses should be held in different countries, to give all members a chance to host a summit. To decide on where to host the next congress, there should be a vote by the General Assembly of this organisation. Any objections?"

Malecia objects only because Mutanatia put a lot of work into establishing a permanent hall in which all of us can meet. I think that logistically, it would be difficult to hold G.A. sessions in a different country every time.

However, I have no objection to individual member states holding summits at various times.

''I have no objections. I'm FOR the presented charter.''

"On point one I'm a little unclear," replied Ms. Schmidt, who was now representing Malecia in the wake of Mr. Blissex's departure.

"Are you saying that the LUSS troops must be committed to a 30 day action? Or are you saying we must wait 30 days before we deploy? As a nation with extensive military experience, I am not sure that waiting 30 days would be feasible, particularly in the face of an aggressive opponent. In fact, that is precisely why we thought a Security Council was necessary in the first place. To determine the necessity, if any, of military action and then to take the appropriate action.

"On point 2, if we are going to have a super-majority requirement, then it should be a one-vote short requirement. I don't know how feasible a unanimous requirement would be.

"On point 3, we agree that Globexanter is a strong member of the international community. However, we also remember the overwhelmingly aggressive nature that Globexanter displayed when they first joined us. We thus propose a compromise: We will support a provisional appointment of Globexanter to the Security Council as a permanent member for 120 days.

At the end of that period, the remaining members of the Security Council will vote. If a simple majority vote to retain Globexanter as a permanent member, we will support that as well.

We do not apologize for this stance, nor do we think it is unreasonable. We are at this moment allowing Globexian sailors the privilege of a port visit in Malecia. But we wish to be convinced some more before we agree to handing Globexanter a permanent seat on the body that will be responsible for overseeing, and more importantly restraining, this organization's military operations.

Along those lines, we propose an alteration to the charter that expands the Security Council to 5 seats, so that the original proposed members will retain their positions, if they desire, and if they are approved.

On point 4, we agree with you 100% that this organizations first and foremost goal should be humanitarian efforts. If you read the charter proposed, you will see that I purposely built in a very strict process to be undertaken before troops can be deployed. I agree that honorable causes should be our dominating pursuits, but I do not think that providing a mechanism to allow for self defense is necessarily unfavorable.

On point 5, I apologize for the vagueness of the deployment Title. We envision a system whereby the LUSS commander will have a staff and will issue overall orders for the military units at his disposal. Said orders will be executed by the commander of the participant nation's forces.

For example, the LUSS commander may be a Takaram citizen. The commander charges the Malecia commander with taking objective A. The Malecian commander would then plan and execute the actual mission, updating the LUSS commander periodically on his or her status.


On point 6, If a world leader wants to withdraw troops, we would at least hope that said troops stay in place until properly relieved. If they simply deserted their posts, they would subject their replacements to a situation that could prove fatal.

Malecia wants all LUSS states to understand one thing: We do not spend our troops recklessly, nor do we take their deaths lightly. We are the first to sue for peace, and often the last to go to war. We maintain a professional all volunteer military to defend our interests, not to flex our muscle.

OK. We're agreed on points 1 and 2. On point 4, the purpose of the Security Council is to debate the merit of sending in troops, determine if troops are necessary at all, and set out the objectives of those troops before they are deployed, so I think we're in agreement.

We also agree to point 5. In that scenario, The Malecian commander would meet with the LUSS commander and receive his/ her objectives, and then do as you outlined. So Chain of command would be:

Security Council votes to take action. They order the LUSS commander (who would be from a Security Council nation to begin with) to take necessary action. He/ she then formulates an overall strategy, and assigns objectives to the military commanders present, and they in turn command their own troops and report back when they have completed their respective missions.

I wholeheartedly agree with you on point 6. Abuses of authority will not be tolerated. If LUSS troops are found to have not respected the honorable surrender of an opponent, that should be grounds for automatic expulsion from LUSS.

On point 3, I take strong issue with the characterization that I am "shunning" Globexanter. If I was shunning them, I would be saying that I do not want them to sit on the council at all.

On the contrary, I am not only agreeing to allow them a PERMANENT seat on the Security Council, I am offering to expand the council's seats by one so nobody else will feel shunned.

And as a strong advocate of international cooperation and a nation that has gone out of its way to be accommodating to all other nations on this board, including Globexanter, I don't think that asking for 120 days to be assured that he has changed from the events at the Odvestarn peace conference in Milling is too much.

I ask this: as a nation who has always respected the sovereignty of others, and who has always been the first to suggest talks, and summits as a way of resolving differences, and as a nation that has never showed aggression toward another nation... am I asking too much?

In conclusion, I would also point to the recent actions of Globexanter's colonialism and ask the Chair the following question: Is aggresive colonialism and a policy of forcing native populations into involuntary servitude the type of conduct that is to be condoned of the members of this organization? Particularly when a nation engaged in such practices is vying for a seat on the Security Council?

I yield the remainder of my time to the Chair.

(OoC: Yeah I had a class in International Law in law school. Made me a little uncomfortable to find out that the 5 largest weapons traffickers in the world hold permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council: The U.S.; Russia; China; France; and Great Britain. Awesome ain't it?)

Schmidt takes a breath and settles herself before replying. She was recommended for this post by her mentor, Wallace Blissex. At 35, she was the youngest Malecian diplomat in history. She wanted to make sure that she lived up to her reputation, but more important, to the title of diplomat. Losing her cool here would do no one, especially the people of the Republic, any good.

"Mr. Mantado, I already stated why I felt a provisional appointment to the Council was appropriate. I do not seek to bar Globexanter from sitting on the Council, nor do I seek to delay their appointment."

"As to the other nations you mentioned, Mutanatia has never demonstrated wanton aggression; Kannex has had internal strife, but they have always tried to work with their fellow members, and I have already discussed Malecia's foreign policy."

"As to HumanSanity, yes, I would in fact be opposed to allowing them to sit on the Security Council at this time, by virtue of the fact that they are clearly in a state of transition. 10 years ago, when Malecia was in a state of Civil War, it would have been absolutely inappropriate for us to seek a seat on the Security Council, had it been in existence at that time."

"The Security Council's name may be misleading, but its first and most important objective must always be, without exception, peace and stability."

"Does this mean we feel that Globexanter is incapable of peace? Not at all. They clearly have come a long way since the Odvestarn Conference. We merely wished to see if they could make it the rest of the way, as they take their place among us."

"I do reject any idea that suggests that we were attempting to penalize Globexanter. On the contrary, we were asking for a small consideration in exchange for allowing them to be a part of a Council that will, in the final analysis, be a reflection of this organization's ideals as they relate to peace and cooperation."

"As it is clear my motion on a provisional appointment will not come to a vote, I will make this my final comment on the issue and move to suspend further debate. But before the issue is closed and you move to have Globexanter appointed, I would like to hear from Takaram and Kannex, as well as Globexanter."