Feature: "Profiting from the War on Nazis"

[Unibot]

 
>>> FEATURE
 
 
Profiting from the "War on Nazis": A lost cause with benefits...
 
EDITORIAL | UNIBOT
 
Unibot examines the rational choices made by state and non-state actors which precipitated the “Nazi Hunts” of 2013.
 
As the New Southern Army claims victory over the Nazis in the region, “Fascist”, I cannot help but return to theorizing about the Nazi Hunts of 2013. 
 
For those who were not around for that phenomenon, let me begin by prefacing that the "Nazi Hunts of 2013" is just a term I've used to identify a period between January and June 2013 when there was strong political momentum, among a plethora of different political actors in Gameplay, to attack Nazi Regions and antagonize Nazism. Here is a timeline of some important events from this phenomenon: 
 
Timeline of Important Events

• Jan 01 2013 – GGR invaded by a collusion of independents and imperialists. (Asgard, The North Pacific Army, The Medjai Guard of Osiris, The Royal British Isles Navy, The Land of Kings and Emperors, Unknown, Right to Life, Venetia).
• Jan 03, 2013 – The Pacific declares war once against with The Greater German Riech.
• Jan 13 2013 – Cormac Stark joins the Pacific Army as Commander to fight Nazism.
• Jan 24 2013 – Anti-Nazi Summit begins in The Pacific. “Declaration of Solidarity Against Nazism” signed by Game-Created Regions.
• Feb 01 2013 – SovCon is created. Ratification by Equilism, The Pacific, Gatesville and Osiris came shortly after.
• Feb 15 2013 – SovCon takes “Union of Fascists”; broadens message towards “extremism” in general.
• Feb 21 2013 – “Regarding the Fight against Hate and Nazism in NationStates” is published by UDL. Bans UDLers from invading Nazis.
• Feb 23, 2013 – Nazism is a hot topic, SPINN (The South Pacific’s News Tabloids) runs a piece on the differing opinions of Nazism.
• March 16 2013 – “Liberate NAZI EUROPE” passes.  Delegates organized under the Anti-Nazi Summit to support the resolution.
• April 12 2013 – SovCon, The South Pacific, The North Pacific, Balder, Lazarus and The Kingdom of Denmark invade The Greater German Riech.
• May 2013 –  Senator Gaspo, chief Anti-Nazi, banished from NPO for treason.
• May 18 2013 – EPSA invades the following regions for having embassies with GGR: The United San Diego States, Luek Empire And Allies, Elite Region of Global Command, The Imperial League and Lost Outpost. Spiritus defends against EPSA controversially.
• Jun 02 2013 – SovCon disbands.
• Jun 11 2013 – “Riech” invaded by The Pacific, Lazarus, Balder, Equilism, and Asgard.
• Jun 12 2013 – UDL withdraws from the UDL-TEP Treaty over "Nazi" issues.
• Jun 2013 – Failed Invasion by PEF, EPSA, TBH, UIAF et. al. of NAZI EUROPE. Later becomes the subject of the “NPO’s Retort”.

Largely the campaign against Nazism dies off after these events...
 
These events are so clearly in my mind because of the stark focus of the political atmosphere at the time on the "War on Nazis" -- there was no larger topic on people's minds that unified political actors more so than the movement to attack Nazi Regions. It was what we were talking about... it was what we were fighting over... it was what we were legislating about and having meetings about... it was what the game was about for several weeks -- at the height of the Nazi Hunts of 2013 in March, there was one key topic on everyone's tongues: Nazis and what to do about them.  
 
Some of the main spokespeople for the "War on Nazis" included disgraced NPO Senator, Gasponia (who co-founded SovCon), Cormac Stark, Dalimbar and Feux. During the Nazi Hunts, we saw independents, invaders, imperialists and francoists cooperate to invade many Nazi regions (I've simply listed some of the key invasions that I could find), we saw the rise of Sovereign Confederation (SovCon), an independent super-regional organization that was largely building a reputation attacking Nazi regions, we saw the first WA Liberation resolution pass that was intended to weaken a region's security (NAZI EUROPE) and we saw defenders, The Founderless Regions Alliance and The United Defenders League, publicly slammed for their seemingly "sympathetic" policies towards Nazism.  
 
The Founderless Regions Alliance, of course, defends Nazi regions on the grounds that all regions have the Right to Self-Determination -- The United Defenders League's position of neutrality towards Nazi regions is no more popular or politically inoffensive (often seen as contradictory). The United Defenders League changed its policies during the height of the Nazi Hunts to prohibit its members from invading Nazi regions, largely to curb what it saw was a counter-productive "War on Nazis" and to systemically deter cross-membership with SovCon, which it considered a rival competitor. Do note, the "Nazi Hunts" is focused on the invasion of Nazi Regions -- during this time, Nazis were still incredibly active on the battlefield and it was largely defender forces that were defending against popular Nazi organizations: The United Defenders League, for example, fought against National Socialist League in The Islamic Republic of Iran, GGR in Illuminati Assembly, Nazi Europe in Senatus Populusque Romanus, while The Founderless Regions Alliance defended Aeternam Unione from The GGR among other victories.
 
With so much momentum and political resources fueling the Nazi Hunts of 2013, how successful were they in accomplishing their goal of ridding NationStates of Nazis? Surprisingly ineffective. I would go as far as to say the Nazi Hunts of 2013 actually accomplished the opposite effect -- strengthening and expanding the robust scale of Nazism in NationStates. Of course, there were small victories along the way: The Greater German Reich looked disorganized and on the brink of collapse at one point when some of its executives fled and the founder was temporarily deleted, meanwhile Nazi Europe purged its own region for the sake of security and took steps to protect itself (e.g., passwords, piling). Despite these small victories emboldening the interregional community, the reality is: as a whole, Nazism was not "hurt" by the Nazi Hunts, in fact it may have helped to rejuvenate the Nazi movement in NationStates and perpetuated steady growth overall of Nazism in NationStates.
 
Here are two graphs I prepared using population data from NSHistory. In Fig. 1,  I've tracked the populations, over time, of the major Nazi regions in NationStates (Nazi Europe, The Greater German Reich, Nationali Socialist League, The Fascist Union, NBE, Union of Nationalists, BLITZKRIEG). I understand that at one point, there were quite a few operatives and subversives planted in Nazi Europe, however that should not distort the overall trend which can be observed more clearly in Fig. 2, a composite of populations of the major Nazi regions in NationStates tracked over time.
 

Fig. 1.   Population of popular Nazi Regions between 2012-2014. (click to enlarge)

 

Fig. 2.   Composite population of popular Nazi Regions between 2012-2014.

 
What this data suggests is that the Nazi Hunts of 2013 were an abysmal failure -- the fact that Anti-Nazi conspirators were this unproductive was never collectively recognized. I reckon that the public was focusing its attention on "traditional" Nazi regions like Nazi Europe and The Greater German Reich -- without looking at a composite, more broader picture of Nazism in NationStates which includes many of the start-up, newer Nazi regions like National Socialist League (under the leadership of the enigmatic "Captain Woodhouse"). The data shows steady growth in Nazi regions across NationStates, the rise of new Nazi powers during the height of the Nazi Hunts and  a mixed bag of modest consequences for Nazi Europe and The Greater German Reich's regional population (which both stabilized eventually).  Overall, the number of "Nazis" (players associated with major Nazi Regions) has nearly doubled over a year and a half. 
 
The face of Nazism in NationStates is always changing -- population depletion in one Nazi region often means a population gain in another Nazi region. This is called the "Balloon Effect" or "Push Down, Pop Up Effect" -- it's a common criticism of the U.S's drug policy and the "War on Drugs" which finds that drug busts cannot systematically curtail the flow of illegal drugs. It's a similar story for aggressive strategies to antagonize Nazis: invading one Nazi region means the Nazis simply move to another Nazi region. Like the Americans' "War on Drug" policy, the logic of the strategy is largely undermined by the mobility of human resources and capital. 
 
There's also concerns that pursuing Nazis so aggressively and so publicly caused escalation, internally motivating Nazis to politically unite and strengthen themselves and also the Anti-Nazi campaign may have helped promote Nazism in a backhand kind of manner by giving these stigmatized regions a lot of unnecessary interregional attention. 
 
But the title of this article is not, "How we lost the "War on Nazis", it's "Profiting from the "War on Nazis"" -- so, how did political actors profit from the Nazi Hunts? I believe that the War on Nazis was (unsurprisingly) an entirely political affair, where a group of different political actors shared some mutual political interests to perpetuate this War on Nazis. It never mattered whether the Anti-Nazi campaign was successful -- in fact, some of the participating actors had good reason to want to see the conflict continue for as long as possible. There were five main interest groups which were involved in some form or another with the Nazi Hunts of 2013, let's discuss how they benefited (or suffered) from this fascinating phenomenon: 
 
Independents
 
Independent regions like The North Pacific, The South Pacific, The East Pacific and Osiris found themselves in particularly unfortunate political circumstances in 2012. Many of them had created armies or reinstated their old armies either that year or the year previous – all of which were struggling to gain numbers, maintain activity and define themselves. There was not enough support for either defending or invading in their respective regions, so the armies were caught in a political quagmire and relegated to simply invading Warzones to do … something. 
 
For example, let’s look at The North Pacific.  On July 27, 2012, Eluvatar sought public opinion in The North Pacific in regards to what the North Pacific Army’s mandate should be – his poll found that people were sharply divided over whether the army should defend (58.1%) or invade (45.1%). This kind of divided public opinion could not foster the political space necessary to advance a “defender” or “invader” mandate. However, the public was united that The North Pacific should strike its enemies (100%) and regions “that we do not like” (71.4%). What’s interesting is that The North Pacific was no more or less interested in defending against regions “that we do not like” (58.1%) than it was interested in defending against anyone (58.1%). 
 
From this it follows, defending against stigmatized groups only appeals to the same defenderist crowd, while presumably attacking these stigmatized groups was popular with centre-right voters to engender such high support among the electorate. Therefore, Independent regions like The North Pacific and many others are very open to invading their enemies and stigmatized minorities, but less open to defending against them – the campaigns to invade stigmatized minorities (e.g., Nazis, Spammers, Fascists) were simply the easiest way for them to find a mandate for their respective armies. 
 
The key point here is that independent regions desperately needed an activity like "invading Nazis", which would be popular enough for the regional armies to conduct, or else their regional armies would suffer the consequences activity-wise.
 
Invaders and Imperialists
 
Things were moving fast politically for Invaders and Imperialists alike during the Nazi Hunts of 2013; Common-Sense Politics took office on March 26  2013 as President of Europeia largely on his platform to provide an "olive branch" to Game-Created Regions and present Europeia as an alternative ally to The United Defenders League. Invaders and "Bi-gameplayers" were, meanwhile, making huge political inroads in The North Pacific by early April with Blue Wolf serving as delegate, Crushing our Enemies serving as speaker, Gaspo serving as Attorney-General and Punk Reloaded and Abbey Anumia serving as court Justices -- The North Pacific even invaded Warhammer 40000 alongside The Black Hawks, which was a key watershed movement. Imperialists, meanwhile, sought to maintain their power over Lazarus (under increasing pressure against Feux).
 
It can be said that one of the main political priorities of both Invaders and Imperialists alike was to gain a stronger foothold in Game-Created Regions and as always: undermine defenders. With the Nazi Hunts giving Invaders and Imperialists an opportunity to work with Game-Created Regions, this was a perfect scenario for them. Meanwhile, these parties benefited from a boost in their public image as "tough" on Nazism and compassionate. Finally, I would also suspect that many invaders encouraged the Nazi Hunts because of a possible "Gateway Effect" -- presenting Anti-Nazi invasions as a "stepping stone" towards invading random, innocent regions like Warhammer 40000. There were some invaders, Zeorus and Cerian Quilor, most notably, who criticized the anti-Nazi campaign as being incompatible with the contemporary Invader's anti-moralism -- these minority views, however, were pushed aside by the majority of invaderdom to pursue what they perceived to be an enormous political opportunity. 
 
Francoists
 
Francoists got involved with the Nazi Hunts with the War on The Greater German Reich for the explicit purpose of curbing their regional adspam in The Pacific and abroad. The original declaration of war notes their "pathetic adverts that frequently befoul our regional message board". 
 
I believe Francoists also liked the unifying effect of the Anti-Nazi campaign because it provided a political avenue for "Pan-Feederism", a goal of contemporary Francoism, as well as providing a unique opportunity for Pacifica to flex its soft and hard power -- organizing the "Anti-Nazi Summit" and the Pacific Army.
 
SovCon
 
Out of all of the actors, nobody stood to gain more from the Nazi Hunts than Sovereign Confederation which fueled its operations with primarily an Anti-Nazi framework to sets itself as an alternative to Defenderism (which it referred to as "dogma" in official documents).
 
The War on Nazis was central to Sovereign Confederation because it helped to unify Game-Created Regions around its institution and helped bolster its public image against a constant barrage of interregional criticism that sought to define SovCon as a mere political extension (a softer face) of The Empire.
 
Defenders
 
Finally, Defenderdom -- a periphery actor in the Nazi Hunts were the only "losers" of the War on Nazis. Publicly, both The FRA and The UDL were significantly hurt by accusations that they were "sympathetic" to Nazism and the political momentum helped to internally divide The UDL (its senior staff was actually surprisingly unified on the issue, but in the lower ranks, disagreements over policy occurred). Furthermore, issues between The United Defenders League and EPSA over whether regions with embassies with The GGR counts as "arbitrary invasion targets" precipitated a collapse of the UDL-TEP Treaty. Meanwhile, there was also the typical tension that occurs overall between defenders and anti-Nazi independent forces which upset political relations between defenderdom and the centre of power abroad. 
 
When you put all of these interests together, you can paint a nasty picture of a political landscape, driven by different interests to perpetuate this unproductive, fruitless conflict:
 
 

Fig. 3.  Justifications for Anti-Nazi Campaigns.

 
Everyone (even Nazis!) benefited from the Nazi Hunts of 2013, except defenders who lost political influence and were extremely vulnerable to political attacks for their supposed sympathy of Nazism. The Nazi Hunts of 2013 were a political phenomenon that was expanded and popularized despite being essentially unproductive, if not counter-productive, because these "Anti-Nazi" activities served a greater political interest for a complex system of political actors (Independents, Invaders, Imperialists, SovCon and Francoists) who stood to mutually gain from attacking Nazi Regions.
 
I wrote this piece not to say "look at all the political things they did" -- this is a political game, I expect people to act with political interests in mind. Nonetheless, I've always been interested in irrational scenarios where political actors have it in their best interests to perpetuate a system that it clearly not producing its desired outcome, such as the "War on Drugs" or various American Food Aid programs -- in the case of the Nazi Hunts, I think we have a prime example of how this behavior can manifest itself in NationStates Gameplay. A clear conflict of interests however (which I noted in Fig. 3) was between the hope of imperialists, invaders and SovCon to expand their influence in the Game-Created Regions and the interest of Francoists in protecting Game-Created Regions from  this outside userite influence. Ultimately, I believe the Nazi Hunts collapsed because these interests finally collided: the growing influence and presence of invader/imperialist powers in Game-Created Regions became too much for francoists to ignore. The last major attempt to invade Nazi Europe saw the unraveling of this major political complex as relations between Pacifica and the Europeian and Imperialist powers came to a sudden impasse. 
 
The Nazi Hunts of 2013 were one of the most important series of events in NationStates Gameplay last year because of their serious ramifications: the weakening of defenderdom,  the strengthening of independentism, the rise and fall of Senator Gasponia and SovCon and the increased incursion of imperialist and invader powers into the game-created political arena. Today, we stand on the brink of the Second Great War in NationStates -- a political war which is a consequence of escalation, fractionalization, brinkmanship and a developing power struggle between the major world powers in NationStates Gameplay. The friendship between Defenderdom and Pacifica, the rise of the Imperialists and the parallel challenges and endorsements towards Independentism stands to divide our interregional society further and advance us closer to the possibility of total war.

[Westwind]

"Nazi Hunts of 2013" is just a term I've used invented to identify write NS history the way it want it to appear to future generations of players

[Unibot]

Would you prefer the "Glorious Fight Against the Nazi Scum of 2013" or something like that?

[Westwind]

No.  I'd prefer no labels to try to compartmentalize players in ways inappropriately for your own purposes.

[Consular]

I almost choked on all the bullshit after the first few paragraphs, so didn't bother reading the rest of it.

[Darkesia]

Just no