:. An Examination of Alliance Politics, A look at the Past, and the Future...

An Examination of Alliance Politics

Written by Hellenic Republic

The history of the Planet Bob is filled with stories of various alliances waging war, signing treaties and interacting with other alliances. In this short, but concise essay I will address the flow and evolution of small, fledgling empires such as the New Pacific Order, and how they eventually grew into monstrous, superalliances like The Initiative, and how the Initiative will likely be here to stay.

Beginning this essay we need to take a look at what constitutes a successful alliance. nine times out of ten, it takes an off-site community ( e.g. Something-Awful.com, Nationstates ) to spark a large influx of new nations to kick start an alliance on the road to becoming Sanctioned. Being sanctioned means you are among the "elite" within the game. Sanctioned alliances are the major players in the game and it's important to understand how sanctioned alliances grow, and interact with both other sanctioned alliances and non-sanctioned alliances.

Generally, the main sanctioned alliances were tense with the other alliances at the beginning of the game, and that eventually grew into a the first wars. The Polar and Citrus Wars. These wars were fought on an individual alliance basis, and really were slugging matches between the opposing alliances. Not until the Second Polar War did the Mutual Defense Pacts become apparent as a new way to wage wars and interact on the geopolitical scene. Mutual Defense Pacts are binding documents that state, with clauses for opting out ( e.g. In the event of aggression ), that if a signatory body is attacked, the others must come to thier defense. GATO, Legion and NPO all had MDP's at the start of the Second Polar War. The NAAC had none, which contributed to its defeat.

The next evolution was the short attempt to create the first superalliance, the Independence Council. This failed because it was not only a military body, but also a Political entity. It was too bogged down with red tape and lasted less than a month. Eventually, the Council was replaced with a system similar to "King of The Hill". GOONS had not yet arrived and the NEw Pacific Order was currently the top dog within the game. They didn't have alot of diplomatic options, and at that time they seemed quick to use thier military power, as opposed to thier diplomats, though there were several attempts at averting what is now called, The Great War.

The Great War was sparked by a LUEser who had posted some inappropriate material, and the NpO emperor at that time launched first strike nukes, and the NPO defended them against most of the other alliances, both sanctioned and non santioned, in the game from attacking. The NPO was eventually beaten back, though not defeated. The time of brandishing sticks on the world scene was over.

This leads us to the last and current phase of Cybernations Alliance Politics. The Power Bloc. The Initiative, AEGIS, The League, The Sphere. Each of these alliance signatories have what is termed a Mutual Aggressive/Defense Pact, or MADP. An MADP means that regardless of the circumstances, you must aide your fellow signatories. The Initiative currently is the strongest of any of the Power Blocs. They have MADP's with the strongest alliances, while the other, Former League Members have a few scattered MDP's. It is logical to assume that the Initiative will remain the top most player as long as the Power Bloc system remains, but beyond Power Blocs, there is no other step. It's unfeasible to assume that the World will unite in some United Nations escapade. Thus, that leaves us with the conclusion that unless some unforseen event happens, The Initiative will likely stay on top for quite some time to come.

This thread is in the Academic Sub-Forum, and responses will therefore be kept to a certain standard. If your post does not meet the requirements outlined here then it will be removed.

I'd like to point out that the difference between a MADP and a MDP is pretty much a moot point. If two alliances have good relations, they will join regardless, especially when you take OOC casus belli's into effect.

While the ideas in your paper are sound, I believe this statement is possible but not a surething by any means. I have only been in this game for a short time, however I have tryed to study it history and from what I see, boredom of peace seems to be the primary catalyst for war in the Cyperverse.

The Initiative has proven it abilty to defeat enemies that are as powerful nation strength wise and member wise and after this war it seems there will be no bloc large enough to compete with them. I am sure this will mean a few months peace and order with only a few wars between smaller alliances. But from what I have read it seems that the cyberverse breaks into a major war about once every 2 months. While the next war my be between some of the other lesser powers in the cyberverse, such as some of the independents or GAURD, I believe it will only be time before bordom over takes the peace within The Initiative.

So in conclusion, I Don't believe "quite some time to come" will be longer then about 4 months. However, I am not saying this will be there end or that there major powers (NPO, GOONS, FAN) will be destroyed, but the peace cannot be held for too long.

This post has been edited by Dark Lord on Apr 7 2007, 02:24 PM

I have to raise an issue with one statement in the OP.

The World Unity Treaty that founded The Initiative is not a MADP.

Very specifically, it states that signatory alliances are not automatically oblicated to go to war at the same time as other signatories. The alliance making the attack has the option of asking other alliances (anywhere from one to all signatories) to attack with it, or requesting that no alliances attack with it.

An example of how this works is the recent conflict between Nordreich and LSF/SWF.

Nordreich declared war on LSF. However, they requested that the other WUT signatories not become a part of this conflict. Thus no state of war existed between, for example, LSF and TOP.

Thus the World Unity Treaty is its own form of agreement, and not simply a set of interrelated MADPs,

One of the things I admire about the World Unity Treaty is its flexibility. The nature of the relationships between the signatories is such that it is simply not necessary for all Initiative nations to retaliate when one of them is attacked. The recent conduct of the Great War showed that in effect certain alliances could be held in reserve in the event that more alliances were drawn into the war on the other side.