Tian’an Conference

[BananaZebra]

Elizabet Németh, the aging Lady Chancellor of the United Kingdom of New Endralon and Kizenia stands.

At risk of speaking out of turn, and at risk of drawing ire from our gracious host, this supposed plan to defeat imperialism and prevent what occurred between Beiteynu and Lourenne is to use imperialism to destroy imperialism, and will not only fail in achieving its stated goal but cause, in our opinion, a greater conflict to arise. The plan would strip nations of our sovereignty and thrust us into the iron grip of a regional power decided by the Son of Heaven, not allowing us to even question this state of diplomacy or break free from our new masters, forcing us to place their interests as "paramount" to our own.

Under the current system that Yingdala lampoons as "imperialist," at least nations have the ability to pivot from one master to another - the Kundrati delegation should know more than enough about that. What Yingdala really means when they criticize the current system then, as best as I can deduce, is that they are not allowed unchecked imperial ambition in their neighborhood, and are willing to sacrifice the sovereignty of every nation in Terra to achieve imperial dominion over their neighbors.

We will not support this imperialist system of forced subjugation, and find its mere proposal to this conference an insult.

[Doc]

Dame Diane Smith, Her Imperial Majesty's Foreign Minister, Empire of Ananto and Kalistan

*exasperatedly*

Point of Order:

It goes without saying that refusal to acknowledge the Order of Business in this Conference by some delegations is an excellent allegory for the reasons international "order", such as it is can never meet its aims of imposing order on the gang of cats known as the International Community. But if the Chair does not wish to enforce speaking order, does it even need to exist? Can we move to suspend the Order of Business, so that those of us who are actually attempting to follow the rules that we all agreed to aren't disadvantaged by that attempt relative to those who have little respect for those same rules?

[GreekIdiot]

Lorieta Benowitz drops her cup of Ahmadi coffee at the sound of the word "Kundrati". Mumbles apologies as an aid rushes to clean up.

[GreekIdiot]

Technician, The Terran Times

[whispers] Going live in 5, 4, 3... [2 fingers] [1 finger] [signals go]

[Doc]

Dame Diane Smith, Her Imperial Majesty's Foreign Minister, Empire of Ananto and Kalistan

At the risk of speaking out of turn, I beg your forgiveness, and will take the censure from the Body. But I literally have just this one thing to say and then I have to catch a plane back to Kalistan to carry on with business as usual.

I was ordered by Her Imperial Majesty, The Empress of Ananto and Kalistan, My Lady Nicolette I to attend this conference to represent the Non Aligned Movement. We are a free organization of states fundamentally opposed to the notion of power blocs and externally dictated world orders. Kalistan will not be participating in anything this conference decides, just like we have abstained from participation in the World Congress. That institution was a puppet organization of Great Powers who sought to use it to promote their own parochial interests. It is up to you all to ensure that this doesn't turn into just a clone of that.

With all due respect to our gracious host, the proposal on the floor currently is horrible. I join with other delegations, both great and not so great, in saying that this proposal is unworkable at best, and quite evil at worst. The notion that some states are more important than others, that those states should be able to carve the world up into little spheres of influence and should be cemented in place as regional hegemons, or something like that, is rather offensive, and the idea that their interests should take any precedence over the interests of those who are not crowned "major powers" by this conference is downright destabilizing. Kalistan won't observe that scheme any further than we can throw it.

Her Imperial Majesty hopes that this conference is able to come up with a better plan for the world Order. In the meanwhile, I would, on behalf of her Imperial Majesty, invite all states who are left completely out of that structure, to join organizations like the Non Aligned Movement, which are not regional power blocs or collective security agreements, and take a principled stand against the very notion of the great power politics that our Gracious and most Honorable host has unfortunately laid on the floor at this conference. The Non Aligned Movement seeks to offer states an opportunity to coordinate their efforts without concern for the interests of one power or one hegemon overriding what we know we can do together. We are not pawns in their games. We ought not be used or even seen as that. The Interests of every nation in this world should matter far more to that nation than the needs and whims of the Great States.

While Great Powers are a necessary part of this conversation, Kalistan has no reason to continue to take part in it. The Empress is pleased to read that so many delegations here have spoken out against that very concept.

She has given me three further tasks to discharge here:

1. She has ordered me to offer His Imperial Highness the Son of Heaven fraternal greetings, a wish of good will and good fortune from the Sovereign and People of the Empire of Ananto and Kalistan, and express her sincere wish for deeper relations between our two nations in the near future.
2. She has bid me to express the same to the Sovereign of Lourenne, though she knows that the relationship between The Empire and the United Kingdom has been cooler recently than it has further in the past, for example, when Catherine was still Queen, she would like to mend this relationship sooner rather than later.
And
3. She would like to invite you all to Ananto for a little conference of our own about establishing a Terran Monetary Unit that a) will reference the national currency of no individual country, and b) can therefore serve as an external standard to set the values of our own national currencies against. We can all be certain of the value of such a device, and would like to form an international TMU regime which will allow our own governments to evaluate the value of our currency for better comparison against other currencies.

We thank you for your time and your indulgence. My diplomatic obligations discharged, I bid our Gracious Host, The Son of Heaven a fond farewell and hope to meet again.

*after which Dame Smith grabbed her gear, including a bottle of Hutorian Whiskey she had been swilling, and leaving a few grams of Dah Gold on the table for anyone who wanted it, and departed the room*

[hyraemous]

The Kundrati delegate would take the dah gold left by the Kalistani delegate.

[BananaZebra]

Ambassador Ismail Tzafrir, Badara

The ambassador and foreign minister stand.

Badara concurs with the delegation from Kalistan. I have been summoned to peace talks in Gaduridos, which our government views as more important and more potentially productive than this conference.

The plan proposed by Yingdala is disrespectful and asinine.

The Badaran delegation leaves the hall.

[Luis1p]

Alexis Vivaldi-Vandam, Royal Minister of International Affairs, Royaume Uni de Lourenne

Esteemed guests,

While we enjoy the invitation to this conference, I must inform you all that His Majesty's Royal Government asks for my presence in Gaduridos for the peace conference of our most recent conflict.

We thank our hosts for the invitation, but are interests no longer remain here.

Merci.

The Lourennais Delegation leaves the room.

[Liu Che/Zhuli]

Qiao Zihao, Counsellor-in-Chief of Yingdala

Your Excellencies and Your Imperial Highness, we thank you for your comments. To properly follow the protocol, we will only respond to those who have thus far followed the protocol.

There seems to be agreement that the World Congress does not work and should be reformed. Whether it is more of a place for debate and diplomacy versus enforcing its will through sanctions is debatable, but the point is that the organization should be weakened to a degree - at least in the sense that it should not have authority to authorize military interventions.

However, there is broad disagreement on the merits of interventionism or whether it should be allowed at all.

We quite rightly agree with our friends from Narikaton and Darnussia that sovereignty is important and interventionism should be quelled as much as possible.

We disagree with our friends in Luthori and Lourenne that interventionism should be based on the weak defending the strong or abstract values where there is no disagreement. This is only a perpetuation of current problems - which is ultimately about countries, indeed great powers, seeking to extend their influence beyond their region.

This expansionism is what we seek to quell as it is the ultimate source of the conflict we face. Hence, our proposal for regional order maintenance. No, this does not mean imposition of wills or denials of sovereignty. All states have this. But we must face reality - national interests will clash. Unless we are all united as one state, conflicts of interest will be our fate.

Now, since the major delegations have provided opening remarks, we will offer our more detailed proposal, having taken into consideration the views of others:
1. The World Congress will serve as a diplomatic organization where states may freely discuss issues on neutral ground. It will not serve to pass resolutions or enforce them, but may issue opinions on global matters which any nation may take into consideration when formulating policy.
2. Great powers should remain within their respective regions and not expand their military influence outside it. This means military bases or any other permanent or semi-permanent stationing of forces.
3. Neutral zones should be created in Terra to ensure powers are held to account and limit the spread of conflict. These zones will include Seleya, Macon, and Keris, as they divide the East and the West.
4. Neutral zones would be free from alliances with great powers, as well as any sort of political or personal unions to minimize conflicts of interest.
5. No nation may interfere in the internal affairs of another.
6. Every nation has the right to defend itself and pursue its national interests in any way it seems fit so long as it ascribes to the above principles.
7. No one power should be able to dominate others and will be checked as such, through force if needed.
8. Great powers may align with one another, but must abide by the above principles.

If the above framework had been in place, would the Hubris War have started? No. What about Dorvish meddling? No. What about the Great Terran War? No. What about the Southern Hemisphere War? No. What about the Treaty of Port Morgan? No.

We simply seek to prevent ideological wars and wars of expansion while maximizing the sovereignty of states. A supranational organization will limit the latter and the former would be intensified under a model allowing rampant interventions in all regions so long as one can make an emotional or rhetorical appeal.

If we went one of the two ways just mentioned, what would happen to the Grand Union of Yingdala? Would states think our system needed to be overthrown because we do not conform with some ideal we disagree with? A supranational organization dictating and enforcing resolutions could do the same. But we must also consider the reverse, under either system, Tian'an could invade others to impose its will be creating a "humanitarian" or "just" reason, or convince other states in a supranational organization to enforce our will.

If another major delegation has a proposition that resolves the root causes of the conflicts of the past, please plainly offer them. There is no judgement here. Otherwise, the floor will be given to those who have not spoken.

[Drax]

Defense Minister Joachim Bodenschatz, Bundesrepublik Dundorf, takes the chair of Foreign Minister Dr. Stella Becholdt who leaves the conference for duties in Gaduridos