Re: The GZGverse UN

My take on the UN...

The UN has a large presence in the Core - but not much
of one outside. It draws its finances from various fees
and charges paid in the core by all nations - sometimes
willingly, sometimes grudgingly, but paid nonetheless.

More resented than the mulcting of moola is the mandatory
propaganda. There's a lot of emphasis on "One Species,
Many Cultures, One Law". Every schoolchild is indoctrinated
by UN-mandated textbooks, emphasising the Siblinghood of
All Humans, telling tales of the brave UN Ecological
Enforcement Corps defending the planet from the greedy
ecology-wreckers, saving the Whales, etc. How the World
is made a Better Place(tm) by the World Health Organisation.
the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organisation, the International Labour Organisation, and
the World Bank.

It's all very Politically Correct. And in the Core Worlds,
the "Best and the Brightest" are often drawn to the ideals
of the UN.

One of which is that "Peace is Compulsory". The UN has a
large and efficent space fleet, as technologically advanced
as any other or more so, that acts the Policeman in the Core.
It's in everybody's best interests not to allow planet-busters
or Nova-Inducers, at least where there's major population
centres. The peace is enforced by Deterrence, naked threat,
and the threat is Unsubtle. There's only one capital crime,
"Disturbing the Peace", and the punishment is capital and
applied to all with 1/8 or more of a genetic connection with
the perpetrators - though small children and cousins are
often allowed to take Involuntary Exile instead of the
Letal Chamber.

The UNSC is by far the most efficient and least corrupt of
all the arms of the UN. 

Out on the Rim, it's a different matter. Just as in the
1500s, where there was "No Peace Beyond the Line", treaties
and non-aggression agreements are not enforceable. Thus
the various Interstellar Wars, where the UN only becomes
involved where one side or another violates the Laws and
Customs of War - and not always then.

The major problem that the UN faces is the constant
haemoragging of their best people back to their countries
of origin - or more often, to the Colonies. This is because of
the endemic corruption and inefficiency that the young Idealists
find as they rise through the ranks. The only exception is the
UNSC, where the ideals of the UN are actually upheld, not always,
but they do their best within the limitations they work under.
Even there, there have been some spectacular defections, such as
those which leaked Pulse Torpedo technology to the NAC.

One advantage the UN has is that the smaller nations - not the
Big 4 (NAC, NSL, FSE, ESU), but the LLAR, the PAU, the OU -
for their own reasons see the UN as a guardian against exploitation
by their bigger neighbours. The UNSC is reputed to use the OU 
fleet (and possibly others) as plausibly-deniable "catspaws"
on the Rim, where they are unable to (officially) operate.

UN ground forces have a poor reputation - some are actually
as good as any other force, but mainly their reputation stinks,
and for good reason. Mercenaries who won't stay bought, and
vanish at the first sign of fighting. The trouble is, the next
UN unit might just be incorruptible and with something to
prove.

<references to UNBOSS deleted by censor>
<recommendation: author should be placed on Category 5 List
for continual surveillance>