Re: [GZG] UNSC Workings

  UNSC was what got me into FT.  I came on board just as the UNSC
"rules" were posted, so that's where I went.  I always pictured the UN
thusly:

  The UN was generally marginalized as many smaller countries were
absorbed into the larger "powers".  Still, the UN persisted as a
diplomatic entity to facilitate discussion and mediate disputes. 
Indeed, any number of countries that wished to remain outside the major
powers chose to ally themselves more closely to the UN as a means of
remaining independent.	As humanity spread, the core worlds systems were
colonized multi-nationally.  Soon it became obvious that a "neutral"
force was needed to police these systems as conflict and disagreement
between the powers led to spotty policing at best.  This would prove to
be the foundation of an independent UN and UNSC.  Early on, UNSC forces
used castoff older ships, crewed by whomever the member nations would
lend out.  These forces proved woefully inadequate to prevent combat
within the Core systems during several smaller conflicts which led to a
call from a truly independent UNSC.  This call was answered after the
considerable damage done throughout the Core systems in the First Solar
War.
Even the largest powers were forced to go along with an enlarged UNSC in
order to protect their home countries and important colonies from
assault from their nearest neighbors.
   The increased role of the UN allowed several things to occur.  First,
the independent countries were allowed to declare themselves as formally
under UN protection and to provide money to facilitate that protection. 
Secondly, the UN was authorized to raise money by taxing the core worlds
and any independent colonies.  Finally, a "UN citizenship" was created
which allowed anyone to renounce their own citizenship and coming a
citizen of the UN.  This had an unexpected result, as there were a vast
number on private space habitats (corporate, splinter groups, or
multinationals), which had not enjoyed the uncomfortable position of
being unprotected during wartime.  Within a few years, most of these
habitats were UN protectorates, and their populations were largely
formal UN citizens.  Indeed, large swaths of the moon, the Langrage
point habitats, and the Mars Orbital habitats were now under direct UN
control.  Similarly, disaffected populations within the major powers
provided large numbers of UN citizens, and the independent countries on
Earth grew increasingly close to the UN.
   With the newfound income streams, and a growing population base, the
UN began to build the UNSC to enforce its mandate.  Initially relying on
borrowed designs and crews, the UNSC (and its associated ground forces)
slowly began to move to being made up entirely of UN citizens.	This
movement was hastened by several incidents of lent crews "borrowing" UN
technology for their natural countries.  The UNSC recognized that they
did not have the population base for a combat force as large as the
great powers.  Fortunately, any numbers of the protectorates were
advanced research labs and the space habitats contained many citizens
that were used to dealing with high tech in their everyday lives.  This
led to the decision to concentrate the UNSC and UNGF (United Nations
Ground Forces) on smaller numbers of the most advanced technological
weapons available.  By the point of the Second Solar war, the UNSC had
advanced sufficiently to largely prevent any fighting in the Core
systems.  The UN used this success to successfully promote an expansion
of the UN mandate to include any system not directly claimed by a major
power, deep space exploration, and with the first fleeting contacts with
non-human races the coordination of human defenses in times of outright
war.  The growing power of the UN, coupled with the fact that most of
the largest powers had led to the unusual position where most of the
Core Worlds assets of the major powers were as much under UN control as
their own.  Indeed, there was a growing push amongst the UN to put *all*
of the Core Worlds exclusively under UN control.  More than a few
suspect that the UN is slowly maneuvering to become the single human
government.  Increasing levels of suspicion about UN motives may have
led to a slower response to the earliest Kravak incursions.
   The growth of the UN mandate outside the Core Worlds has led to
several of the "minor" powers becoming more closely allied with the UN
as well.  Perhaps most significant is the strong military and
technological alliance between the UN and New Israel.  This has served
to give considerable increase to the already impressive technological
base of both sides, and despite denials by both powers, it is clear that
major advances have been passed between the two.  Rumors persist that UN
Black Ops forces are fully in possession of New Israeli stealth
equipment.  The UN has also been able to draw still more population from
the few truly independent systems and deep space habitats, and has
generally been supportive of breakaway republics once they have been
proven viable. 
   How the UN will be transformed by the Kravak wars remains to be seen.
 The major powers are undoubtedly concerned by the drain on their
populations that UN citizenship has proven to be, and are unlikely to
support any further growth of the UN mandate.  Still joining the UN as a
protectorate has proven itself as an excellent way to avoid human
conflicts, and the UNSC has grown to a size sufficient to prevent direct
military action by any one of the large powers.  

   
   One guy's take.

Grant  

 
-----Original Message-----
From: gzg-l-bounces@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
[mailto:gzg-l-bounces@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu] On Behalf Of Robert
Mayberry
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 6:01 PM
To: gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: Re: [GZG] UNSC Workings

I've never found the UNSC in the tuffleyverse to be terribly
realistic. The only explanation I can think of is if they have some
kind of longstanding intrasolar hegemony that they're capitalizing off
of (see the great post on tax and population bases). After a major war
and with the major powers based on colonies like Albion, presumably
this makes it possible, with their pretense being that they protect
the homeworld from WMD armageddon. But if the UN exists as an
institution at all in the future, it has to be radically transformed
from what it is today. The UNSC as described reminds me of Comstar in
battletech, something I also have trouble figuring out.

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