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

Jonathan spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> 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.

I'd have to agree. They look like they have spiffy kit. 

> 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/.

Except perhaps by concentration. If the UN is small, has some 
advanced tech, then if it restricts its fleet of 2 to policing the 
core systems, and your fleet of five is scattered gaurding core + all 
your colonies, then locally in the core systems they may have 
superiority, plus they probably do have other forces ships rotated 
through with UN liaisons aboard. So in the core systems, they'd 
probably be unchallenged (or not often) because they have the 
gumption to back up their policies. They must have been moderately 
effective or Earth would be a husk. 

> 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.

How about the UN having a world somewhere (New Geneva?) that is the 
new administrative center of the UN. No one but UN citizens and 
guests allowed. Maybe the UN soldiers are soldiers recruited from 
other nations who have renounced national citizenship for UN 
citizenship on such a place (for the greater good of mankind, you 
become a UN citizen as opposed to a NAC or ESU citizen) and maybe UN 
papers let you go a lot of places through agreements and such. Thus 
the UN has a small base of operations, a huge beauracracy of 
interlinked organizations (aide, policing, intelligence gathering, 
humanitarian, human rights, environmental, etc) headquartered here. 

I assume judging by the effectiveness of the UN in preventing large 
scale devastation in the Solar Wars, etc., that the UN must have 
excellent intel gathering arms, more autonomy than the UN today 
(hence maybe an independent tax base or at least a more tax-like 
funding arrangement), and probably spec ops troops. 

I personally am working on a series of linked scenarios rooted around 
a UN SF unit executing 'deniable' operations in order to execute UN 
anti-proliferation policy within the claimed space of member nations. 
I assume this kind of unit and this kind of op goes on to back up UN 
treaties, initiatives, and peaceful means of conflict resolution 
(pressure, embargos, etc). If the unit is elite, and deniable, it can 
destroy or gather intelligence on targets building hideous new 
weapons or contravening arms control policies of the UN. It can 
capture war criminals for trial. It can protect UN facilities (and 
execute 'first-strike' style defensive strikes to protect them). It 
can (in general) defend the UNs interests, assets, and policies. 
Belonging to such a unit might be a lot like being papal gaurd - a 
real honour. Most people wouldn't even know this existed.   But such 
a capability would help to explain how the UN has 'kept the lid on' 
without having an overwhelming military presence. That and of course 
concentration in the core systems, and diplomacy (which works a lot 
of the time), and cooperation from allies (which helps a lot too). 

Tom. 
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Thomas Barclay
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Police Communications Systems
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