Another Brick in the Wall: A Short History of WALL and Europeia's Role therein





Another Brick in the Wall:
A Short History of WALL and Europeia's Role therein

Written by Comrade Prim





(July 8, 2019) -- The World Assembly Legislative League (WALL) has been a central pillar of Europeia's foreign affairs policy for several years. The treaty was presented to the Europeian Senate in July of 2014 by then President Kraketopia. It was a collaborative effort with some of Europeia's strongest allies. The founding member regions were: The North Pacific (TNP), Europeia, Balder, and The International Democratic Union. Co-authored by TNP Delegate and Europeian citizen r3naissanc3r and championed by Europeian WA Delegate Mousebumples, there were several influential citizens backing the treaty including former Europeian WA Delegate Moronist Decisions, who added that, "It will increase the ability of our WAD's office in analyzing legislation, given that other regions will also be able to contribute their thoughts through WALL to the delegate's office."

Presented to the Senate as a way to leverage Europeia's growing WA influence into additional support in Nationstates (NS), the Senate was somewhat skeptical at the time of several points in the treaty. There were concerns about how much sovereignty would be retained by each member region and where the WALL Headquarters would be located. Senator PhDre included a concern about the Stomp/Stack strategy and its implications on Europeian Sovereignty. Explained by Mousebumples, stomping entailed an early vote against a proposal and stacking as an early vote for a proposal, in order to turn the tide early and influence later votes. PhDre commented, "If the name of the game is voting early ... then it is little consolation for Europeia to be Stomping in favor of something that as a region we don't want to do. ... [W]hy should we stomp in a direction we disagree with?" With Senator PhDre's concerns remaining unaddressed, he lodged a symbolic abstention. The final vote in the Senate was 3 votes in favor, and 3 abstentions, with Senator Anumia voting after the close, in favor of the treaty. Europeia ratified the treaty on July 27th, 2014, almost 5 years ago.

One significant aspect of the WALL treaty has been its historic link to the Nationstates Regional Philosophy of Independence. While the WALL treaty was being debated and ultimately ratified in the summer of 2014, the Independence Convention was just getting started. Several of the major players of the founding WALL regions, TNP and Balder, were also signatories to the Independence Manifesto, a document declaring separation from the Raider/Defender (R/D) dichotomy in Nationstates. Independent regions would seek internal stability (coups being a significant problem in Nationstates at the time), seeking alliances with regions sharing mutual interests outside of R/D, and creating mutual defense pacts with those regions. Thus, the WALL treaty and the Independence Manifesto have been seen as correlated in the years since their creation, both in positive and negative contexts. Several nations in NS have long criticized the Independence Manifesto and WALL as being bulwarks of Imperialism, an ideology which is similar to Independence but also focuses on raiding and holding other regions as territories.

WALL's main functions are: to provide a forum, now through a discord server, for the Regional Delegates and other World Assembly staff of the signatory regions to discuss World Assembly legislation and drafts and create mutual resources for informing their respective regions about each resolution; to support drafting efforts between the regions and mutually support legislation to reach a vote within the General Assembly or Security Council; and to help boost overall participation in the World Assembly among the citizens of the signatory regions. Overall, these functions have been successful and still continue to this day.

The fifth and, currently, final signatory to the current WALL treaty was the region Europe. With the addition of the region Europe, WALL regained the highly technical skills of one of the World Assembly's most prolific authors and editors, Imperium Anglorum, Europe's World Assembly Delegate. Imperium Anglorum was formerly a Europeian citizen and Minister of World Assembly Affairs.

WALL's long-term success can be attributed to rock-steady leadership and stability within its member regions. There have been some reservations about WALL's overall effectiveness and the effectiveness of WA blocs as a whole, however. One of the Europeian citizens who aided in drafting the treaty, Malashaan, stated that WALL has "had short burst of success", but "for the most part, it's underperformed." He characterized the difficulties arising from the specific voting procedures of each region causing delays in joint coordination. He mentioned that WALL. as was originally envisioned, "would write a summary and include a recommendation, and then put that out to inform the regional votes," but that ended up not happening in practice. Current World Assembly Delegate in Europeia, Aexnidaral, also mentioned that there have been some increasing issues with individual regions straying from engaging with WALL to come to a vote consensus, especially on Security Council resolutions.Though, Aexnidaral was also quick to point out that WA blocs "can be extremely effective if organized properly, stacking or stomping a vote early can alter how the vote goes entirely", and that WALL has seen a few instances where our leverage has been influential.

Europeia's Council of World Assembly Affairs keeps in close contact with WALL on significant legislation moving through the World Assembly, though each region does retain the final determination for how their World Assembly Delegate will vote, as we do through our regular votes accompanied by our IFVs, Information for Voters guides. The CoWAA is always looking for newcomers to help out and get involved in crafting Europeia's WA stances and policies.



World Assembly Legislative League Signatories
The North Pacific
Balder
Europeia
The International Democratic Union
Europe



Recent General Assembly Resolutions and their IFVs provided by CoWAA staff:

Right to Farm -- AGAINST -- Resolution Failed
World Assembly Justice Accord -- FOR -- Resolution Passed
Prevention of Mutually Assured Destruction -- AGAINST -- Resolution Failed

Recent Security Council Resolutions and their IFVs provided by CoWAA staff:

Condemn the Land of Kings and Emperors -- AGAINST -- Resolution Failed
Commend Woonsocket -- ABSTAIN -- Resolution Passed
Condemn Pierconium -- FOR -- Resolution Passed
Condemn Durkadurkiranistan II -- FOR -- Resolution Passed
Commend Common Territories -- ABSTAIN -- Resolution Passed
 
Great, great article, Prim. A different taste than what we're used to, and quite interesting, too. You clearly did a lot of work on it and it shows. Thank you very much, sir!
 
This historical breakdown of WALL was so informative, Prim. Thanks for putting great work to produce a quality article.
 
How is this a 'short' history? :p

Well-written as always, Prim. :)
 
If I am ever asked what WALL is, I hope I will remember to link them to this article. Great work, Prim!
 
I found this a really enjoyable and informative read, thanks Prim :giggle:
 
Wonderfully informative! I learned a lot about WALL from this article and the title is especially clever
 
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