Consular

This looks like a valuable project! Always good to cultivate new talent.

It's been a while TWP. How is everyone?

Meh it fits.

I love fractures

Your topic is moose.

Look at those deviant bears, loitering around like they own the place. We should send in the tanks.

Swallower of innocents, huh? Do you like them cooked, or raw?

Like what?

King: His Imperial and Royal Majesty, Charles Cerebella Crown Prince: His Imperial Highness, Sir Christopher Bishop Princess: Her Royal Highness, Dame MagentaFairy Prince: His Royal Highness, Sir Joshua IX Chief Knight: Dame Pandora Arch-Mage: His Highly Learned Magnificence, Lord Seven Deaths Knight of War and Lord High Constable: The Warbringer, Dame MagentaFairy Knight Foreign: His Scheming Excellency, Lord Cassius Cerebella Knight Interior: Sir Fuzzy Vinage Knight Cultural: Sir Detritus Saxton Chief Bard: Sir Diutiskland Region | | Forum | | IRC | | Twitter 164,090 forum posts | | 440 Nations One Year and Still Going Strong Fireworks over Fairfax This month Albion celebrated its first anniversary as a region, with a highly successful festival to commend the fact that we've somehow continuously existed for over twelve months! Planned in secret and executed with surprise fireworks by Chief Knight Sir Erebos and his Knights, the festival attracted great activity from the citizens, amassing over 2,500 posts in the couple of weeks it was open. With this the festival contributed significantly to our monthly post count, helping propel the region to its third most active month in our no longer all that short history! Activities included a general melee, where participants could smack each other with large sticks repeatedly for the amusement of the crowd, and a noble joust, which was apparently won by Robin Shepard while I was passed out in the tavern. Also present were the infamous spam threads which reared their ugly head, breaking out of their usual confinements in the Cow & Corset Tavern to cause all sorts of debauchery throughout the festival. For more refined tastes, a Battle of the Bards of was held to test out the poetic mettle of our citizens, which was won by Lord Feniris with his masterpiece, "The Hero of the Boards". Private market stands were opened for the event, and included a satirical story service coined by Lord Seven Deaths, as well the return of the most glorious Cake Stall, giving out Sir Fuzzy's homemade and totally not vomit infested foodstuffs. An "Everyone's-a-mod!" forum caused all sorts of untold mischief, and the event was capped off with a lovely ball hosted in the gardens of FAIRFAX CASTLE, DAME AYNIA. There is no "Bowerstone castle"! *flails* *Coughs* Ahem. Yes. Anyway, the fun of the festival was accompanied by some intermittent bursts of more serious, and at moments rather emotional, speeches at the podium. There were semi-official speeches, celebrating the successes of the region so far, and reflecting warmly back to its original founding with the month of chaos and excitement that followed. There were also speeches from citizens themselves, both old and new, active and inactive, who wished to share their thoughts on exactly what the region meant to them. Some stories were comedic, others simply interesting, and a few brought a tear even to eyes of the battle hardened soldiers of the Royal Albion Legion. The moment was ripe for a group hug of epic proportions, but in an exceedingly inconvenient moment of reality, we remembered that most of us unfortunately lived on opposite sides of the world. Thanks to everyone who helped make Albion the community it is today, and thank you to everyone who has been there for us over the past year! The rum is on the house, courtesy of the King! And no, he did not agree to that. I accept no responsibilities should readers find themselves disemboweled by a Royal Guard while attempting to access the King's personal liquor supplies. Democracy, Democracy Everywhere! Dame Pandora celebrates her most glorious victory In election news, to the surprise of nobody at all, there have been yet more elections! Yes, Albion is a democratic region, try not to look so surprised. Standing for Chief Knight this term was Dame Pandora, who stood against the incumbent candidate Sir Erebos Janmaren. Also standing was Crown Prince, Sir Christopher Bishop, who surprised all and accepted a nomination to run. His campaign promise was that if elected, he would immediately resign and thus prompt yet another election. To the surprise of Bishop himself, this did not prevent him from accumulating some votes anyway, though the voters were sensible enough to ensure he did not quite win. Whether or not this was a good thing of course depends on how trollish one is feeling. The winner of the race was Dame Pandora, who stood on a comparably more sensible platform. One of the highlights was an intent to increase media in the region by reviving The Trusty Messenger, the regional government issue but sort of independent nonetheless newspaper, which will hopefully result in lots of words and stuff for people to read and/or not read. Dame Pandora managed to convince 51.9% of the voters to lend her their support, probably through some kind of sinister witchcraft that we have yet to identify. A grand total of 28 votes were cast in this action-packed election saga. Shortly before the Chief Knight elections we also held the routine race for the Lower Council. To the utter shock of some observers, many of the candidates actually created campaign threads this term, which was a significantly more promising start than for the last. Elected this term were Dame Pandora, Captain General Shepard, Nakon Ank Ankrunides, Damien Lancaster, Sebastien Cerebella Minier, Jack, and Robin Shepard. Almost immediately upon election the group unanimously chose Dame Pandora as their Speaker, and got down and dirty with some legislative proposals, of which every single one was rejected by the new Speaker as being totally unnecessary. Not discouraged, this group of largely new Councillors is continuing to work diligently and is hopefully indicative of a bright legal future for the region. Activity Is What We Do Urgh... Gotta call the insurance company... AGAIN... Albion's Town Square, the go to place for more sensible out of character discussions and meaningless banter alike, saw an explosion (metaphorical) of activity this month. A record number of topics were starting, plunging the region into the darkest depths of intelligent discussion of actual news events and stories from around the world. These were brought to life primarily by Dame Liora Schiff-Garion, who has been at the forefront of efforts to provide good topics for people to talk about in the Square. This helped balance out with the flourishing role play activity, and usual shenanigans in the spam taverns. Debates included a discussion surrounding American interventionism, and concerns surrounding the ramifications of the annexation of Crimea. Which was and still is thoroughly illegal! The city state of Silverpine experienced something of a dance dance revolution this month, when Lord Cassius suddenly and without warning enacted the reforms that he had promised to allow over a month ago. The shocked and concerned citizens expressed a curious mixture of relief that something was finally happening and dread because they no longer remembered what they had agreed to. Nonetheless the changes to the constitution saw a burst of activity as members joined the new ruling council of the city. In one of the first points of order of this new council, Seth Redfield had the audacity to post a dancing gif in an official thread. Lord Cassius responded in the only way one could; by challenging him to an immediate dance off. What resulted was a series of dance gif wars that plunged the city in the chaos of perfectly looped frames, before Lord Cassius decided to be oddly sensible and remove the nonsense from the official threads to the public area of the forums. Here it has turned into a dance lesson thread of sorts. Anarchy was also unleashed briefly when a number of Albion members decided to change their names to a series of random letters for no particular reason at all. The nonsense escalated to the point where many members managed to take the names of other members, resulting in an immensely confusing situation. The King, suffice to say, was less than amused. The menace of the naming nonsense struck again less than a week later, when the same group of devious citizens conspired to change their names to a variation of that of the Arch-Mage, Lord Seven Deaths. Variants included names ranging from One Deaths to Ten Deaths, with many citizens being roped into the plot to assimilate Albion to the Deaths cause. Eventually normality (which is a difficult word to quantify in Albion) returned, but many still bear the scars and memories of these days. So many Deaths, so little time. A new cultural initiative of debatable majesty was also launched this month in the form of the official-ish Albion Minecraft server! Gratiously hosted at the pleasure of Lord Seven Deaths, the server allows all citizens to join and wander around in the world of Albion, creating a home in Bowerstone or getting blown up by a creeper as they scavenge in the wilds. Seven Deaths only demand for the privilege of being dismembered by a zombie was that everyone build ridiculously elaborate temples in his honor. Fortunately, the ever noble and just King of Albion Charles Cerebella stood against the madness of this heresy, and instead drove people like slaves to help him build Bowerstone, while he spent his time attempting to murder Dame MagentaFairy in increasingly creative ways. Highlights so far in our adventures include: ~ Watching with amusement as Robin got killed by a nasty witch when I could have easily saved his life at any point. ~ The great siege of Bowerstone, where an oddly large number of horrid things assaulted the capital and attempted to murder all the almost innocent residents. They were beaten back, but only after an Enderman tore a piece out of the wall of Lord Cassius' tower and attempted to beat him to death with it. ~ Filling Dame MagentaFairy's house with a thoroughly ridiculous amount of anvils, to her great distress. ~ Lord Seven Deaths and Sir Detritus spending two days sailing through the ocean only to realise they had been going in the complete wrong direction the entire time. External Awesomeness Royal Albion Legion attack birds decimate the opposition In external affairs, The North Pacific and Albion Security Treaty has recently been signed into law in Albion. This treaty is the result of negotiations between us and TNP about how we might cement our already warm relationship, and is the culmination of the recent cooperation enjoyed by our regions in both military affairs and otherwise. We have hopes that this not only confirms our past and ongoing friendship, but is indicative of a stronger relationship in the future between two excellent regions. The University of Albion and The Imperial University of The New Inquisition are hosting a joint essay competition, to honor the close partnership of the two regions, and to celebrate academic achievement in our universities. No doubt this competition will produce many interesting works, and perhaps establish a tradition for such competitions for the future. The topics for discussion are as following: ~ "I think therefore I am". How accurate is this statement? ~ "It is society which, fashioning us in its image, fills us with religious, political, and moral beliefs that control our actions." Discuss. ~ To what extent can the Golden Rule, "do unto others as you would have done unto yourself", that is found in religious traditions around the world be considered a universal moral principle? Is religion necessary for the formulation of this idea? ~"Growing inequality in the world makes revolution inevitable." Discuss. In military affairs, the Royal Albion Legion has been as active as ever. Recent we have deployed as part of the United Imperial Armed Forces to liberate the region of Liberal Haven from the Nazi menace that occupied it. This operation was demonstrative of our willingness as a region to oppose the forces of hate on the battlefield, and together with our allies we successfully drove them back into the pit they crawled out of. This was an excellent operation and we are happy we were able to participate. Most recently we have also deployed into the Alteran Empire, adding to the long list of military accomplishments are soldiers have been able to contribute to. Albion News Network The following may or may not be true, which is true is for you to decide Ever wonder why you never see any of us in the Albion IRC channel? That's because Albion subscribes to the Skype Master Race. The header on this release was actually designed by Milograd on a whim one day. The more you know. Cthulhu is now buying souls at half price! Cash in while the deal is hot. Albion recently hosted two marriages, and remarkably neither ended in bloodshed. Dull affairs, really. Praise be unto Anvil! God of all creation. I think we've spent too much time playing minecraft lately... Apparently Invision Free despises gifs, so this is the lesser version of the update that you are currently reading. May the Anvil be with you Always yours, Albion.

Hi, hello, welcome!

Welcome ambassador! I trust all is well in TNP?

Just one of many important services that TWPers offer.

Hogwarts is property of LWU. Theus there is no griefing happening, they are simply resecuring what was theirs before admins took it away.

Glory to TWP!

The penguins should fight for the title of Arch-Penguin

27 May 2014 An interview with r3naissanc3r Following his recent election as delegate of The North Pacific, we sat down with the veteran NationStates player for a fireside chat about himself, The North Pacific, and various other topics. ~||~||~||~||~ Sovereign Realms Media: First of all, thank you for agreeing to this interview. I imagine you're quite busy with preparing your agenda for the coming term, so I'm grateful you took some time to chat with us. r3naissanc3r: I am glad to be here. Thank you for the interview invitation. SRM: Starting with some background, for readers who are less familiar with your history, could you give us an incredibly brief summary? Perhaps tell us when you started NationStates and where you've been majorly involved. r3n: I joined NationStates nine years ago, in June 2005. I moved to Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I), which was also the first region where I was majorly involved. I stayed in GB&I untill the region was closed down in 2009. After GB&I, I was primarily involved in The New Inquisition, Europeia, and The North Pacific. I have been and currently am a member of a few other regions, but not to the same extent as these four. SRM: Do you remember what got you interested in NationStates in the first place? Many players fade out when they answer their issues, what kept you involved in the community? r3n: I remember seeing the link to NationStates posted in the community forum of my undergrad university. This was during a not terribly productive morning, so I clicked, registered a nation, and did nothing else. Then the following day, I still had the link open in a tab in my browser, and I thought I should take a look at the various recruitment telegrams I had received. GB&I's caught my eye. Checking out their forum, they had a remarkable law section, a very well organized government, and lively and rigorous debate on legislation and government affairs. I always had an interest in law and politics, so these things appealed to me. I decided to keep an eye on it for the following few days, and eventually I got hooked. SRM: NationStates has many regions, all of which compete for active citizens. Why The North Pacific? What is there that attracted you to the region? r3n: I should note for context that I joined The North Pacific comparatively late, in November 2012. At the time I had just come back from an attempted (and unsurprisingly failed) retirement from the game, and was only involved in Europeia. I was looking to branch out, and was considering joining a feeder region, which I had never done up to that point. I happened to know Eluvatar and Blue Wolf, both prominent TNPers, in RL. We would frequently discuss TNP, its lively legislature, and the very diverse and active community with a remarkably large number of "elite" gameplayers. These three aspects, familiarity, legislative activity, and community, eventually made me join the region and get involved. SRM: You've served in quite a few capacities in TNP over recent times. Was there any specific reasons that made you decide to run for Delegate? r3n: It was a combination of two primary reasons. The first was fortunate RL circumstances. A demanding RL means that, throughout my nine years in NationStates, I have had to be very cautious about taking positions that require a substantial time commitment continuously over several months. However, this summer for the first time in a while I was able to make such a commitment. That's why I could become Delegate. The reason why I wanted to become Delegate was because from that position I can make unique contributions to TNP, a region I care about. In particular, I believe that my UCR background gives me a unique perspective on matters such as member recruitment and integration, aspects of government which do not receive as much attention in GCRs as they do in UCRs. I am also very confident in my skills in other areas of government. So overall, I decided to run because I believed I would provide a well-rounded and effective leader. SRM: The election was quite a conclusive result. How does it feel to be the elected Delegate of NationStates' largest region? r3n: It's very exciting! When you get elected, you get swamped with a multitude of matters, small or big, that you need to attend to and had not even crossed your mind up to that point. The number of telegrams, PMs, IRC queries, skype pings, etc. you receive all explode, and you need to multi-task through all of them. It's thrilling. Of course, it's important to make sure that these do not distract from the bigger picture. I was elected to deliver the agenda I presented in my electoral campaign, and there is always a creeping feeling that I need to work more to make sure we do not fall behind. But that is joined by a feeling of anticipation, for the exciting final result. SRM: Sounds rather hectic! r3n: It can be, yes. It helps that, by necessity of my RL profession, I have become quite good at effective time management and handling multiple tasks at the same time. But it's still challenging. SRM: Were you surprised by how readily the citizens of TNP placed their trust in you? What parts of your platfrom do you think resonated so well with them? r3n: I was quite confident that I would win, and had confided so to a few people even before the election began. I did consider it likely that there would need to be a runoff vote, so the fact that I won from the first round was a welcome surprise. I would say that the home affairs and communications aspects of my platform appealed to the voters, and made it stand out compared to those of the other candidates. I would imagine though that many voters made a decision primarily based on previous record, and my recent term as Minister of Foreign Affairs, generally described as very successful, certainly helped a lot in that regard. SRM: The platfrom has actually been described as rather ambitious. Are you confident that you can achieve your aims by the end of your term? r3n: I am, yes. I have been very lucky to have had enthusiastic and skilled TNPers join me in the Cabinet: Abacathea, Crushing Our Enemies, Democratic Donkeys, Gladio, Lord Nwahs, and mcmasterdonia. I am also particularly looking forward to the contributions from our broader member base. I believe that with this collective effort, we will successfully deliver the government's agenda. SRM: What part of that platform are you most interested in, or rather, which part do you most look forward to seeing in action? r3n: Home Affairs, for two reasons. First, it is probably the most challenging. Getting off the ground will take a lot tedious work, which then we will need to sustain through coordinated efforts from a large number of members. Second, it will likely have the most long-lasting impact on the region. It is directly linked to maintaining a steady influx of new members, which is absolutely critical for maintaining the region active in the long term. SRM: Are there any areas you think will be particularly difficult, both in enacting your policies, and in governing TNP in general? r3n: I already mentioned in the previous question that Home Affairs will be particularly challenging, and explained the reasons there. There are also a couple of foreign affairs initiatives planned for the term, which I expect will meet some resistance in the Regional Assembly---though I am confident will be successful in the end. I cannot go into details on those right now, but the first should be announced within the next couple of weeks. SRM: Much of the success of these aims will ultimately depend on your cabinet, which you announced shortly after the election. Why did you select these specific people to help you achieve your goals? r3n: They are all people I have experience working with in the past, and have proven to be enthusiastic about and skillful in their respective ministerial areas. Abacathea is a prominent, and commended, World Assembly author, who has been running our WA department efficiently since he joined the region, and I am sure will continue to do so. Crushing Our Enemies has proven to be an effective administrator and eloquent communicator in all of his previous offices in the region, and I know he will do the same as Minister of Communications. Democratic Donkeys is our former Vice Delegate and has unique knowledge and familiarity with our in-game population, which I expect will prove invaluable for Home Affairs. Gladio last term revived the North Pacific Army, in numbers, activity, and capability---and he did all these without being Minister! So imagine what he can do as Minister. Lord Nwahs has been a regular contributor to our cultural sections, and brings the fresh perspective and imagination that are necessary for keeping Culture engaging. Finally, mcmastedonia is an international statesman and probably our most skilled diplomat. He is the natural choice for Foreign Affairs. SRM: Looks like a strong team. Moving on; what, in your opinion, makes a good Delegate? What skills are necessary to perform well in such an important leadership role? r3n: I mentioned a couple earlier: time management, and multi-tasking. Organizational skills in general are critical: you are in charge of a vast amount of resources, and you need to be able to first recognize them, and second know how and where they can be best put to use. It is important to know how to balance taking counsel from your collaborators, and making decisions on your own. While ignoring your Ministers and other counselors is a sure road to failure, at some point you need to make the call yourself. Finally, good communication skills are necessary. You are elected to govern a community. You need to inspire confidence to its members, and to inspire them to want to work with you. SRM: Are there any figures across NationStates who you might consider role models in this regard? r3n: Hmm, that's a hard one. I've been lucky to meet and work with many very talented people in NationStates. I must mention Westmorlandia, my mentor in GB&I. I would imagine most of the readers are not familiar with him, but he was a very effective leader and very impressive individual all around. I always admired Rach for her charisma and the way she connects with people. It is no wonder that the Balderan community thrived during her delegacy. Among my predecessors in TNP, I should mention Eluvatar and mcmasterdonia. Eluvatar set out an innovative agenda, and carried it out fully in a single term. That's remarkable planning and execution. mcmasterdonia was universally trusted and respected by TNP's community. His engagement with the community was so natural and strong, it seemed deceptively effortless. SRM: Both your cabinet, and indeed yourself, have been described as a 'beige' regime. How would you respond to that criticism? What do you think this term implies about your government, and would you consider it at all accurate? r3n: The 'beige' characterization in this context implies that this is an uninteresting, boring even government, with no vision for the future and unwilling to make any changes to the status quo. As much as I don't mind the color beige, which can be a very pleasant color during the summer, obviously I can't agree with the implications. My response is simple. Read my agenda. It may also help to compare its scope with the agendas of winning delegates in other GCRs. SRM: On this subject, TNP has recently come under various forms of criticism, this being but one example, primarily from the Delegate of the Rejected Realms. Do you believe that, in line with your above beliefs of what constitutes a good leader, it is responsible or appropriate for the TRR Delegate to be using a supposedly independent media outlet to voice his concerns? r3n: My impression is that The Rejected Realms do not claim The Rejected Times to be an "independent media outlet". I may be incorrect in that regard. If I am indeed incorrect, we have to consider that The Rejected Times have been described in the past as the official newspaper of The Rejected Times government, with its content edited and approved by the Delegate personally. The publisher also currently happens to be the same as the Delegate, who is also one of the primary contributors. Given all these, I think it would be a completely untenable position to claim that The Rejected Times is a media outlet not representing the government of TRR. As I said though, I do not believe TRR are making such a claim. The 'beige' article is more of a criticism of myself personally, than of TNP. That is fine: Gameplay is not a kindergarten, and we do not all get along. However, there have been a few other articles directly criticizing, attacking even, our regional military and diplomatic policy. Whether these articles are responsible or appropriate really depends on the current diplomatic objectives of the government of TRR. If TRR have decided to pursue a policy of distancing themselves or becoming hostile towards TNP, then the articles are a very effective way of communicating this policy. If their policy continues to be one of maintaining good relations with TNP, as it used to be a few weeks ago during Frattastan's delegacy, then the articles are reckless and will quickly render such a policy infeasible if they continue. SRM: So you do not accept that these criticisms from the above mentioned media are not necessarily the opinion of TRR itself? Can any supposed independence be reconciled with the fact that the editor is also the Delegate of TRR? r3n: I do not think someone could plausibly make such a claim. Even if they are not the exact formal statement of TRR's foreign policy, they have to be interpreted as very informative of and in the same context as that policy. SRM: Following what you touched on above, do you have concerns that continued provocations such as these will strain relations with TRR? r3n: If they continue, that will be the likely outcome. I would prefer to avoid it, as TRR has in the past been a friendly region. I stated recently that my door (or, if you prefer, my skype and IRC) is open to the government of TRR, and they can come talk to me directly about resolving any issues they have with TNP. But I can't force them to if they are not interested in doing so. SRM: A fair policy. Before we move on, I really do have to ask, is there any truth at all to these concerns? Are you secretly an uber ebil imperialist planning to usurp the democracy of TNP and turn it into an oppressive raider paradise? r3n: It's more complicated than that. There is a consortium of organizations which determine all my actions. Members are the IRCabal, the Oligarchy, the Evil Imperialists, raider organizations with names starting with "The Black", Tyr's Hand... and more are being discovered every day! As long as I can continue to blissfully play my puppet role, I am quite content regardless of who exactly the puppetmasters are. SRM: So many conspiracy groups. It must be hard to meet all their demands at the same time! If you're not a diabolical couper, then how would you describe yourself in terms of alignment? Is it even appropriate to be attempting to determine someone's views based on a military based alignment? r3n: It is a black-and-white view of a colorful world. I do not consider military-based alignments very meaningful, and don't adopt one for myself. Military activity is just a component, and often a not very important one, of a region's overall diplomatic position in the NationStates world. For most regions, other principles and objectives, a lot more complex and nuanced, inform foreign policy in a much more prominent way and create a set of regional interests. And TNP is among those. My view is that TNP's military should be used in a way to best serve these regional interests. With overwhelming probability, these interests will require offensive activity under some circumstances, defensive activity under others, but overall both kinds of activity. It is, then, just common sense that TNP should try to maintain a military capable of executing both offensive and defensive operations, to be able to best serve the regional interests under all possible circumstances. Making an a-priori decision to completely exclude one or the other kind of military activity, as required by the various military-based alignments, is suboptimal for regional interests and therefore irrational. SRM: So you would say it a good thing for regions to follow a foreign policy dictated by their interests, rather than allowing it to be defined by military alignment? r3n: For some regions, raiding and defending can be their only interests. That's fine and their choice. But for the majority of active gameplay regions, there are other more diverse and often more complex interests that determine their foreign policy and military activity. In this context, taking a dichotomy that applies only to a small subset of regions and using it to classify all gameplay regions into two groups is bound to give meaningless results. It is about as arbitrary a dichotomy as splitting regions into those using ZetaBoards and those using IPB for their forums. SRM: Is military alignment as a whole an outdated concept? Given different parties perceive alignments in different ways, and many have different understandings of the definition of each, is alignment useful at all in identifying the stance of a region? r3n: It is a concept that NationStates Gameplay has chronically had an obsession with. I am not sure exactly what the origin of this phenomenon is. As I said previously though, for the majority of gameplay regions, military alignment is not a very useful characterization. Probably this is more true now than it was five years ago, but even then it was a false dichotomy. SRM: Many in NationStates believe that unity between game created regions is important enough that it should transcend these ideological differences. What do you think of this idea? r3n: It is a principle that we also subscribe to in TNP when deciding our foreign policy, and we have been commited to it for a few years now. We recently ratified a treaty with The East Pacific, the preamble of which strongly emphasized this principle. Game-created regions are in a position of unique influence and power in the game. With this in mind, I view GCR unity as a policy of consolidation, monopoly even, of power. Such a policy is beneficial for the stakeholders, the GCRs themselves. Of course, it is not a principle we unconditionally subscribe to. There are other policy aspects that need to be taken into account, and in the event of a conflict can potentially override GCR unity. To use an extreme, if not very realistic example, should a GCR be taken over by a Nazi regime, the principle of GCR unity would cease to apply to them. In more realistic settings, conflicts between GCR unity and other diplomatic principles require a much finer balancing act. Finally, some caution needs to be taken so that GCR unity does not degenerate into GCR introversion. GCRs are centers of power, but they are not the only centers of power in NationStates. Focusing exclusively on relations with GCRs at the cost of relations with everyone else is short-sighted and suboptimal. SRM: Is is at all sensible for regions to bind themselves to each other, despite having potentially irreconcilable foreign policies, simply because of the manner in which they were created? It is not merely another form of defining policy based on another external requirement irrelevant to the regions interests, like military alignments? r3n: As I explained above, GCR unity can be justified rationally, rather than ideologically, in the sense of serving a specific regional interest: maximization of regional influence and power. It is not an end in itself. Furthermore, under realistic assumptions, compared to military alignments a policy promoting GCR unity is a lot more likely to be rational in the previous sense, than a policy of never defending or never raiding. I should note that, in my previous answer, I did mention that GCR unity is not a policy to be followed unconditionally. I cautioned that it should not be a dogma, above and beyond every other principle or policy. And there are plausible circumstances when GCR unity will be on the losing side of a policy conflict. As I said previously though, it is a principle that TNP values and is committed to. SRM: Well, that brings us to the end here. I understand some of those questions might have been rather difficult, and that there were a lot of them really, so thanks for bearing with us. Are there any final comments you'd like to make today? r3n: It was rather enjoyable! Thank you again for the opportunity. And my apologies for my own slow response time---readers won't realize how long I've made you wait for some of my replies. SRM: Not at all, it's all excellent stuff. Thank you for your time, and best of luck for your Delegacy!

Yup, poor chaps.

Oh, but then you miss out on all the fun!

better use of time is to plot more shenanigans for the future, rather than reminiscing about old ones.

I've no complaints against you personally, but you do represent your region, and your region treated Hobbes in a manner that is utterly inappropriate and frankly disgusting.

I might note that as a citizen of Osiris I do not mean any of my comments here in an endearing way. I did not appreciate your people's comments about my region-mates.

Hehehe

It's not firing shots to point out the obvious purpose of an article.

Heh, that was my exact thought as well. I've got it on repeat while I write an essay, though its muted and I'm not watching it.