Re:[OFFICIAL] No Good Guys, what about the UN?

On 22 Jul 98, at 15:24, Thomas Barclay wrote:
> To bring this back OT, a question for Jon or the list. Do we suspect
that
> the UN has enough power to curtail most attrocities in the future? Or
are
> the terrible wars of the future the horrors one would imagine, given a
> small and far stretched UN? Can they police the far colonies well
enough
> to stop ethnic cleansings and the like? Or is the UN just a watchdog
for
> the Sol system and pretty much whatever awful strife goes on in the
> colonies is what it is with no interference from the outside world?
This
> makes a difference to the types and levels of restrictiveness that
would
> be placed as ROE on the forces of the various nations. And do some
people
> limit their folk because of fear of the UN or principle whereas others
due
> to power or disagreement with UN authority ignore conventions or do
not
> limit their forces ROE? And what about the Megacorps? Do they (being
econo
> powerhouses) ignore UN ROE? (Reasoning they can buy off or just ignore
any
> implications because they are so big?)
> What say thou, list members? What say thou on the UN, Jon T?
I've been thinking about the FT UN myself actually. The figure ranges
for SGII suggests 
that UN troopers are some sort of special forces unit - they have beeter
armour and 
weapons than your standardgrunt by a fair margin. There is also mention
of UN space 
craft in the flavour text. This implies  that the UN is a standing
force, rather than as the 
UN does today and drags units from it's member's forces.
That being the case, the next question is how *big* in the UN's military
wing? I can't see 
it being as big a power as the major political groups. I also can't see
it being able to 
stand up to any of the major powers on a fleet battle basis - even if
your cruisers are 
15% better than your opponents, if he's got 5 dreadnoughts and you've
got 2 ships you're 
stuffed. So I can't see the UN acting as a serious law enforcement
agency unless they 
can call in other nation's forces /as well/.
That's as far as International stuff goes. Inter species I can see *all*
Anti-Kra'Vak task 
forces/operations being under UN C&C. Better to have one system that's
specifically 
tailored to dealing with their threat than have a hotch-potch every
time. Again though, I 
would expect they would have to temporarily acquire big assets from
member states. 
I suppose the UN would still take a mediation role in inter state
affairs, but I can't see it 
actually being able to pollice anything more serious than minor colony
squabbles.

			TTFN
				Jon
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	Beth Orton 'Best bit'
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