Gatesville’s occupation of Osiris has been the top story in the NationStates world for some time. There hasn’t been much discussion of it in Europeia. I thought I would chime in with my two cents. At my request, President Cerian previewed this article and confirmed that it contained no classified information, but all opinions herein are strictly my own (which should be clear as you read on).
Osiris has never been a typical game-created region (GCR). The creation of Osiris and Balder two years ago triggered a land rush without parallel in modern times. A diverse group of game players secured Balder. We were friendly with the founders, and several Europeian dual citizens were among their ranks, but we never did much to wield influence over there. As a consequence, Balder was a weak, fledging region for quite some time, but over time an indigenous community took root there and grew into one of the more vibrant communities in the GCRs. We recently recognized this development by entering into a treaty with Balder. Even so, however, we do not have significant influence in Balder – whatever influence we do have is mostly due to the personal ties many of us have with Cerebella, who is of course a big wheel in several of our other treatied allies also.
While Balder was going through the growing pains of a small, independent community, Osiris fell into the orbit of the United Defenders League. The UDL was a formidable force in NationStates at that time, so it is hardly surprising that Osiris enjoyed much more early activity than Balder. Under the leadership of UDL stalwarts such as my friends Oliver and Earth, Osiris was widely seen as the more successful of the two new GCRs. Over time, however, the hegemonic relationship took a toll on Osiris. The region made spirited efforts to break away from this domination, but nothing happened in Osiris without the UDL’s blessing – which we learned to our chagrin when we poured much effort into talks with Osiris a couple terms ago. It is not surprising, then, that the UDL’s decline in influence was soon followed by a loss of Osiran sovereignty. Our President has spoken publicly of this, condemning the occupation by Gatesville while also chiding the leaders of Osiris for failing to build stronger institutions.
Despite these misgivings about Osiris's leadership, the President reaffirmed Europeia’s commitment to GCR sovereignty and committed Europeian support to a long-term effort to undermine Gatesville’s occupation and return the prior Osiran regime to power. This was a major commitment on his part for two reasons. First, because the occupiers were able to install a long-time citizen as delegate, restoring the former regime would be far more difficult than, say, liberating TSP following Milograd’s illegal coup there. Second, some of our traditional allies had sided with Gatesville – they are at war with the UDL, and as a satellite of the UDL, they presumably felt that Osiris was a fair target. I supported the President's decision – however bad the prior, quasi-hegemonic regime was in Osiris, outright occupation by Gatesville was much worse.
As time has worn on, however, I have begun to question the wisdom of such a long-term commitment. For one thing, the “liberation” effort (if that’s the right word) is led by people who are either feckless or who hold us in contempt – Biyah, Cormac, Mahaj, and so on. I like Cormac well enough, but I question whether he can stay on the same side long enough to see a project like this through, let alone persuade others to commit to the cause. As for Biyah and Mahaj, I have no use for them at all. Indeed, if memory serves, Biyah himself was involved in a prior effort to usurp the government of Osiris – and now he wants us to commit substantial resources to a long-term effort to restore that government to power? And Mahaj, of course, is the present personification of UDL hegemony in Osiris – why should we work to replace one hegemon with another?
So far, President Cerian has stayed the course. I respect his decision. In my own time as President, I worked to make GCR sovereignty a cornerstone of our foreign policy, and I’m glad to see the current government taking our commitment to that policy seriously. At some point, however, we need to make a sober calculation of self-interest. It is far from clear to me that continuing to support a less than effective regime that is dominated by people who dislike us, while our traditional allies stand on the other side, is in Europeia’s best interests. And at the end of the day, the purpose of an assertive, independent foreign policy is to advance our best interests, not to right every wrong in the NationStates world.
That’s where I stand. I hope this stimulates discussion.
Osiris has never been a typical game-created region (GCR). The creation of Osiris and Balder two years ago triggered a land rush without parallel in modern times. A diverse group of game players secured Balder. We were friendly with the founders, and several Europeian dual citizens were among their ranks, but we never did much to wield influence over there. As a consequence, Balder was a weak, fledging region for quite some time, but over time an indigenous community took root there and grew into one of the more vibrant communities in the GCRs. We recently recognized this development by entering into a treaty with Balder. Even so, however, we do not have significant influence in Balder – whatever influence we do have is mostly due to the personal ties many of us have with Cerebella, who is of course a big wheel in several of our other treatied allies also.
While Balder was going through the growing pains of a small, independent community, Osiris fell into the orbit of the United Defenders League. The UDL was a formidable force in NationStates at that time, so it is hardly surprising that Osiris enjoyed much more early activity than Balder. Under the leadership of UDL stalwarts such as my friends Oliver and Earth, Osiris was widely seen as the more successful of the two new GCRs. Over time, however, the hegemonic relationship took a toll on Osiris. The region made spirited efforts to break away from this domination, but nothing happened in Osiris without the UDL’s blessing – which we learned to our chagrin when we poured much effort into talks with Osiris a couple terms ago. It is not surprising, then, that the UDL’s decline in influence was soon followed by a loss of Osiran sovereignty. Our President has spoken publicly of this, condemning the occupation by Gatesville while also chiding the leaders of Osiris for failing to build stronger institutions.
Despite these misgivings about Osiris's leadership, the President reaffirmed Europeia’s commitment to GCR sovereignty and committed Europeian support to a long-term effort to undermine Gatesville’s occupation and return the prior Osiran regime to power. This was a major commitment on his part for two reasons. First, because the occupiers were able to install a long-time citizen as delegate, restoring the former regime would be far more difficult than, say, liberating TSP following Milograd’s illegal coup there. Second, some of our traditional allies had sided with Gatesville – they are at war with the UDL, and as a satellite of the UDL, they presumably felt that Osiris was a fair target. I supported the President's decision – however bad the prior, quasi-hegemonic regime was in Osiris, outright occupation by Gatesville was much worse.
As time has worn on, however, I have begun to question the wisdom of such a long-term commitment. For one thing, the “liberation” effort (if that’s the right word) is led by people who are either feckless or who hold us in contempt – Biyah, Cormac, Mahaj, and so on. I like Cormac well enough, but I question whether he can stay on the same side long enough to see a project like this through, let alone persuade others to commit to the cause. As for Biyah and Mahaj, I have no use for them at all. Indeed, if memory serves, Biyah himself was involved in a prior effort to usurp the government of Osiris – and now he wants us to commit substantial resources to a long-term effort to restore that government to power? And Mahaj, of course, is the present personification of UDL hegemony in Osiris – why should we work to replace one hegemon with another?
So far, President Cerian has stayed the course. I respect his decision. In my own time as President, I worked to make GCR sovereignty a cornerstone of our foreign policy, and I’m glad to see the current government taking our commitment to that policy seriously. At some point, however, we need to make a sober calculation of self-interest. It is far from clear to me that continuing to support a less than effective regime that is dominated by people who dislike us, while our traditional allies stand on the other side, is in Europeia’s best interests. And at the end of the day, the purpose of an assertive, independent foreign policy is to advance our best interests, not to right every wrong in the NationStates world.
That’s where I stand. I hope this stimulates discussion.
