Collective Security Union

The Collective Security Union (the Union) is one of the two major state actors of the Local Cluster. Initially established as an intergovernmental alliance to provide for the defense and economic growth of its member states, it has taken on many aspects of a federal nation over the course of its history. It was established on year 1 of the Union’s calendar, which centered its first day on the day of the Union’s formation. The Union’s basic structure, the separation of powers between the federal government and member states, and other important details are defined in a series of framework documents that are amended from time to time as the necessity arises.

The Union is, as its name suggests, a system of collective security. The collective interprets an attack on any member state as an attack on the whole, and every member state is required to contribute to the resulting defensive war. It was formed by its founder states as a preemptive response to the great unknown of the Local Cluster, and the possible hostile groups within it. Over the course of its history it has expanded across the Local Cluster and brought into its fold member states large and small, up until the end of exploration and the start of the Sapient Peace.

The basic flag of the Union displays a pair of outstretched red hands, held close together at the wrists and with all fingers visible, reaching for a white galaxy spiral on a black background. More elaborate versions of the flag contain additional details that add to the symbolism. Examples of such details include a partial ring of colored circles around the upper half of the galaxy spiral, representing the homeworlds of the various member states; a small blue solid circle in front of the galaxy swirl, representing Earth; and a large dark blue circle with a gold trim that sits behind and encloses the galaxy swirl, representing a universe in the Local Cluster.

Military Operations
Main article: Solar Crusades

Membership and Expansion
Under the Union, the member states have the final say in many elements of their internal business. The framework documents confer to the member states the right to enact state and local level legislation, establish diplomatic agreements and relationships with foreign nations, maintain a standing military, mint a common currency, declare war or sanctions, carry out independent expansion efforts, manage its own budget, and more. These rights are equivalent to the rights of the members of an alliance or loose confederacy.

However, the framework documents and its later amendments also confer various limitations on these rights. The primary limitations demand compliance with broad federal legislation; contribution during a collective war; budget allocations towards certain fields during peacetime; military standardization; diplomatic, economic, and scientific cooperation with each other; and acceptance of the energy credit, a currency minted by the federal government, as exchangeable with local currencies. These and many other limitations ensure that the member states are reasonably compliant in the fields where standardization and cooperation will significantly reduce bureaucratic, logistical, and other strains.

The first step towards membership in the Union begins with an Association status. A prospective nation with a past record of friendly diplomatic relations and agreements with the Union may petition the Council for the status in question. The Council may, with a simple majority vote, extend said Association status to the nation in question. This indicates the nation as an official friend of the Union, and makes available more extensive diplomatic relations such as defensive, commercial, and research treaties.

After a sufficient period of time where the nation has maintained its Association status and any diplomatic relations that the Association status has as a prerequisite, the nation may petition the Council to begin the process to Integrate the nation into the Union. The Council may, with a two-thirds majority agreement, allow for the process to begin. Under this process the applicant nation must make efforts to comply with a series of limitations and stipulations. The applicant must resolve any diplomatic, territorial, military, or economic disputes with any Union member states and with any other nations in an Association status with the Union. The applicant must also make itself compliant with the limitations stipulated in the framework documents.

Once the applicant nation has reached a satisfactory level of compliance, as determined by the Cabinet of Ministers, the applicant will then dispatch its diplomats to meet with the Council and the Cabinet. Here the member states may raise issues and objections to be resolved and the applicant nation may negotiate over smaller details not described in the compliance phase.

Once negotiations are complete, the Council will convene to vote on the issue; with a two-thirds majority the Council may extend an offer of Integration to the applicant nation. Upon acceptance of the offer, the applicant becomes an official member state of the Union.

Government Structure
Main article: Structure of the Collective Security Union

The Union is not strictly a confederation, a federal state, nor a military alliance, but instead takes on attributes of all three. Its central government, like that of a confederation, maintains limited authority over member states that are free to self-dictate vast majorities of their way of life. Its member states, like that of a military alliance, will dedicate portions of their forces to defend the whole and any other member state in the event of foreign aggression. Its central government has powers, duties, and offices matching that of a federal state.

The Union observes a bipartite system of government with a combined legislative and executive branch overseeing most government procedures and a comparatively weak judicial branch to interpret and review legislation.

The Council
See Also: Speaker of the Council

The combined legislative and executive branch of the Union takes the form of the Executive Council, a unicameral legislature staffed by representatives and envoys from each of the member states and from the federally controlled territories. Each member state appoints one envoy using any method of their choice, while the sole envoy of the federal districts and administrative regions is elected every five standard years through a modified electoral college system.

Each envoy has the power to submit a motion to the Council to be deliberated and cast one vote for or against the motion, regardless of the population of the member state or federal territories represented. After a deliberation period, thirty days by default and subject to extension by majority agreement, a motion is passed or discarded based upon the number of cast votes; all uncast votes and abstentions are disregarded during the vote count. However, for motions requiring a supermajority, uncast and abstaining votes are counted as opposing votes. In the event that an envoy is incapacitated the member state they represent may directly cast their allocated vote by communicating with the Council through official channels.

The Executive Council wields the powers of both a legislature and an executive office. With the agreement of a majority of its members the Council may approve of foreign treaties, codify legislation, establish temporary decrees, declare war or sanctions, appoint and dismiss members of the federal government, and put into effect domestic and foreign policies. With a two-thirds majority the Council may impeach Council members, integrate new member states, eject existing member states, codify legislation that overrides member state sovereignty, and amend portions of the framework documents. With a three-quarters majority the Council may declare the necessity for emergency powers, granting it increased authority over the member states and the power to rewrite the framework documents of the Union as it sees fit.

A series of committees also exist in conjunction with the Council. These committees are staffed by experts in various fields and provide advice to the Council and other heads of government. Some committees enjoy legislative power abstracted from the Council and may review proposed legislation or funding and present conclusions and suggestions to the Council. Others are created by Council vote to investigate select issues.

The Cabinet of Ministers is an executive body that occupies an intermediate position between the Council and the committees. It is staffed by the heads of state of each federal ministry and both advises the Council on relevant topics and administers the day to day operation of the Union. While the Council de jure has full power over the rest of the federal government, it is the Cabinet that de facto exercises most of said power on a daily basis. In the event of a tie in a Council vote, the Cabinet of Ministers may be called upon to collectively cast a tiebreaker vote.

The Speaker of the Council is an executive-legislative position with no term limit that oversees the operation of the Council and the committees. The Council may, with a simple majority vote, elect any person of their choice to the position of Speaker, however convention expects the Council to select a candidate with a history of political experience. The Speaker can appoint and dismiss committee members; can sit in committee, Cabinet, and Council meetings; and can partake in and vote in said meetings except for those convened to appoint a new Speaker.

The Ministries
Beneath the Council are a collection of federal executive departments or ministries that manage the interstate portions of the Union and the federally managed territories. Each ministry derives authority from the Executive Council and serves as administrative arms of the Union federal government.

Each of the Ministries cover a vital field of bureaucracy. The Ministry of Foreign Relations serves as the diplomatic branch of the Union and coordinates the equivalent branches of the member states when interacting with other nations of the Local Cluster. The Ministry of Defense manages the military forces of the Union federal government and serves as the supreme command during a war involving multiple or all member states. The Ministry of Commerce regulates trade that passes through the Union and trade between the member states. The Ministry of the Treasury balances the federal budget and allocates resources as needed. The Ministry of Internal Security serves as the leading head of the hydra of intelligence agencies operated by the member states, and guards against threats domestic and foreign. The Ministry of State Security maintains webs of agents abroad to keep an eye on foreign threats that may act against the Union.

Each Ministry is a bureaucratic Rube Goldberg machine of lesser departments, offices, committees, bureaus, directorates, and services. Examples of these subdivisions include the Defense Sciences Institute, the Union equivalent to the Accord of Free Nations’ Advanced Research Projects Agency; the Department of Public Transportation, which manages the Slingshot and Jump Gates in Union territory;

While the Council directly appoints and dismisses the Ministers and the commissioners, directors, and other bureaucrats one or two levels under them, lesser officials are usually appointed and dismissed by the ministers, one of the lesser executive units, or any official no more than three levels above them.

Federal Territories
Separate from the member states are a series of Federal Districts and Administrative Regions under the jurisdiction of the Union government. These districts and regions are managed by officials elected by the residents of each district and region, with each area under the jurisdiction of a governor and all of the areas under the authority of an envoy serving the role of a president or prime minister.

The Special Administrative Region (SAR) is the de facto “capital” of the Union, and many of the executive ministries of the federal government have their facilities established on the various worlds and space stations within the SAR. Located in the central system of the SAR is Union Station, a space station whose size rivals that of a moon and the seat of government that the Ruling Council dictates from. Connected to the SAR, via a network of Jump Gates, are the other federal territories and the core territories of each of the member states. This makes the SAR the central hub through which most interstate movement occurs and the heart of the Union.

Military Forces
Main articles: Union Guards, Union Armada, Operational Rocket Forces Directorate

During times of peace the Ministry of Defense and the military forces of the member states exist as equals. The two sides may transfer units and officers to each other for cross-training or other similar purposes, or conduct joint exercises together, but neither can exercise power over each other not specified in the Union’s framework documents. During times of collective conflict where the Union is engaged in a war as a whole, the Ministry of Defense takes on the role of the supreme military command and extends its authority over any and all military forces dedicated by the member states towards the conflict in question. These forces augment the troops under the federal government’s command.

The Union maintains a sizable standing military force, comparable to the forces of a few member states combined, in the form of the Guard and the Armada. The Council confers authority to manage the Guard and the Armada to the Ministry of Defense and authority to directly command them to a cabinet of Marshals serving the Ministry of Defense. Each Marshal presides over a portion of either the Guard or the Armada, and the two branches of the military are each headed by a Field Marshal that is in command of their respective branches.

Union Guards
The Union Guard is the planetside branch of the Union military forces. It serves the purposes of a standard army and carries out defensive and offensive actions on or in planets, space stations, and other inhabited astronomical bodies.

The smallest Guard unit of strategic significance is the division, containing 25,000 guardsmen and an appropriate amount of equipment. Several divisions form a field army of at least two hundred thousand guardsmen deployed on one local front of a larger battle. Several field armies form an army group of at least a million guardsmen deployed to a single planet for compliance, invasion, or defense operations.

As planetary battles are usually spatially isolated from each other, it is rare to see multiple army groups operate near each other. Because of this, command hierarchies above the army group exist more as a formality and do not have as much power over its constituents. Guard Marshals make use of these hierarchies to manage the deployment of army groups to suitable planetary fronts, but it is the generals in command of the army groups that decide the outcome of each front.

Guard doctrine varies greatly depending on the planetary front in question. Some army groups might carry out thunder runs across open landscape with armored spearheads and precision air power, while others might advance through no man’s land under withering barrages from self-propelled artillery. Some others might create their own no man’s land, creating compartments of defense that will force any would-be invader to commit to a costly campaign to destroy each compartment.

To this end the Guard is equipped and outfitted so that it will have the appropriate army group for any scenario. Attached to each army group are its own air force, troop transports of both planet bound and spaceborne variety, specialized units tailored to their focus and needs such as Reduction Engines or tactical nuclear artillery, and a logistics corps that ensures the army group can maintain its prodigious use of munitions and supplies

Union Armada
See Also: Terminus-class Dreadnought

The Union Armada is the spaceborne branch of the Union military forces. It serves the purpose of a standard navy and is the Union’s main tool of power projection.

The smallest Armada unit of strategic value is the battleship or dreadnought group, containing a single battleship or dreadnought and its escorts. Three to five groups and accompanying logistics ships form a battleship or dreadnought division, a unit of force usually deployed as a scattered force in a sub-sector or equivalent area.

Unlike with the Guard and its army groups, the Armada and its dreadnought divisions often operate in relative vicinity to each other. Command hierarchies above them have more oversight and control over each division in order to coordinate the large maneuvers that are expected to occur during a war. An example of such a hierarchy is the sector group, composed of several divisions and additional logistical forces that will operate in a sector or equivalent area.

Armada tactics call for gun lines of ships armed to the teeth with Lance and Macro weapons firing as one against enemies in range while secondary support ships screen against enemy munitions. Through the overwhelming force of many weapons the Armada breaks its opposition in direct confrontation, and through sturdy shields and armor the Armada weathers attempts by its enemies to do the same.

This reliance on the strength of guns wears down its participants over the course of a war. To resolve this each division and sector group is trailed by a long logistical tail of everything from material conveyors to mobile shipyards. Front line units that have taken on excessive wear and tear due to battle are cycled out to the rear to be resupplied and repaired by said logistical tail, while reserve and cycled units ready for combat are shifted forwards to replace them.

Logistics Corps
See also: Conveyor Ships

Guard and Armada warfare, by their very nature, consumes prodigious quantities of resources, munitions, and spare parts. Without a continuous flow of resupply, army groups will falter and dreadnought divisions will break down. The Department of Logistics, an administrative arm of the Ministry of Defense, exists for the sole purpose of managing this issue.

The Department’s contribution to a war manifests primarily in the form of great flotillas of conveyor ships moving between supply depots in the rear and their recipients on the front lines. These conveyor ships are the arteries and veins that keep the corpus of the Union war effort operational, and without them a campaign or war will most certainly fail. The conveyor convoys are supplemented by additional Jump and Superluminal Gates reserved solely for shortening logistics lines, semi-mobile space stations and dry docks to repair Armada ships, and convoy escorts to defend the poorly armed conveyors from any would-be harassing force seeking to disrupt logistics operations.

These operations are organized under a series of Logistics Corps each attached to the various axes or fronts of conflict in question. Though they are de jure subordinate to the Marshal in charge of the axis or the front, different Logistics Corps cooperate closely with each other and with any allied forces under their areas of jurisdiction regardless of which Marshal command.

Directorates and Indices
The Operational Rocket Forces Directorate (ORFD) is a department of the Ministry of Defense subordinate to the Union Armada. The ORFD handles the production, storage, unit training, and deployment of operations level CBRN-E (chemical, biological, radiative, nuclear, esoteric) weapons. This category includes the Union’s First Strike capacity. Its Union Guard equivalent, the Strategic Rocket Forces Directorate (SRFD), handles strategic and tactical level CBRN-E weapons such as nuclear artillery and other “unusual” weapons such as Reduction Engines. The directorates are each headed by a Marshal appointed explicitly to manage their respective directorate.

The Missile, Rocket, Artillery, and Vehicle Index (MRAV Index) is an index of designations for Guard and Armada equipment of all sorts. The index uses a combination of numbers and letters to denote the category and purpose of any given munition, weapon, or major component in use by the Guard or the Armada.

Economy
The Union operates a market economy regulated by the Ministry of Commerce and its equivalents in each of the member states. While each member state is free to mostly meddle in its own economy as it sees fit, the framework documents implement limitations on this control to prevent interstate economic conflict. These limitations forbid punitive economic actions, such as sanctions and tariffs, from one member state targeting another member state or any foreign state actor in an Association status with the Union.

Though the market is de jure free, in reality it is heavily influenced by a collection of megacorps and conglomerates collectively represented by the Committee of Industrial Corporations. The CIC’s members, quasi-monopolies such as Standard Petrochemicals and Union Metallurgy, exercise excessive and undue influence on the economies of many member states through both their economic inertia and politicians of all sorts who are willing to let the CIC grease the wheels of bureaucracy.

Culture, Religion, Society
Main articles: Union civil religion

Officially the Union is secular and does not observe a state religion. Its member states are free to observe any number of religions as they see fit. However, unofficially, the Union and many member states have adopted a series of quasi-religious faiths similar to that of a civil religion. These faiths are collectively described under several blanket terms.

Human Exceptionalism
Human Exceptionalism is a societal concept adapted from pre-spaceflight human civilization. It asserts that humans and the Union, by virtue of being the first species to evolve sapience and the first civilization to reach out for the stars, are inherently different from and above all other sapient species and nations. Its proponents claim that, as the first to beat back the Great Filter and cross both superluminal dimensions and the Interstitial Sea, the Union has an exceptional duty to bear the metaphorical torch of civilization and guide other sapient species into becoming equals.

Over the course of history, as a number of non-human member states joined the Union, the concept evolved to suit changing times. Later iterations of the concept toned down the focus on the “human” exception and emphasized more on the “collective” exception. The “human” exception rested on a rigidly defined genetic category and implied that the non-human member states were not exceptional or otherwise inferior, a political hot potato that the more pragmatic members of the Council sought to downplay. Instead they espoused a “collective” exception that rested on a more loosely defined ideological category that could be generalized to all member states. With this the concept became more of a Collective Exceptionalism encompassing the Union and its member states, providing for the basis of a pseudo-national identity.

Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny is another societal concept adapted from pre-spaceflight human civilization. It asserts that humans and later the other members of the Union, by virtue of their exceptional duties and responsibilities, are endowed with the natural right to expand across and occupy the stars. Proponents of Manifest Destiny claim that in order to uplift other species the Union must acquire expansionist policies and carry its torch to every new world discovered. Through this they justify the continued expansion of the Union, both peacefully and by force, as a natural result of the collective destiny of its constituents.

The consensus of who Manifest Destiny encompasses and extends to is one of controversy. As the government does not observe any official religions and as there is no central figure for the various civil religion ideals, there are many interpretations of who goes where.

Humans are included as a given, as are most aliens that resemble humans to a sufficient degree. As the former invented the idea and the latter are considered “close enough”, they are included by default. More “alien” aliens whose nations hold membership in the Union are usually considered to be included, however exceptionalist groups of one category or another may exclude them from their interpretation of Manifest Destiny.

Androids and artificial intelligence, however, generate a great deal of controversy. All manner of people, from neo-Luddites fearing the rise of post-human artificial intelligence to those who consider machines imitating their masters to be an affront to the “natural order,” oppose the inclusion of “abominable” beings under the umbrella of Manifest Destiny.

Mandate of Heaven
The Mandate of Heaven is a political concept adapted from early human civilization. It asserts that the authority to rule over the Union and its constituents, alongside the responsibility to safeguard human exceptionalism and bear the torch of manifest destiny, is bestowed upon those who can bring prosperity and just rule to the children of the many Earths. The Executive Council uses the Mandate of Heaven to justify its authority to rule over the Union and its member states.

The Council justifies its possession of the Mandate of Heaven with its past records. The Council points to the interbellum periods of peace where the member states flourished and prospered. The Council points to the Solar Crusades, each a struggle to defend the Union against hostile outsiders. Through this the Council asserts that it has brought prosperity and just rule to its constituents and thus holds the Mandate of Heaven.

The original sources of the Mandate of Heaven contain conditions for unjust or incompetent rulers that fail to bring prosperity to their constituents. In such a scenario the Mandate of Heaven is withdrawn from the ruler and the people are justified in overthrowing the ruler and seeking a new leader who can take on the Mandate of Heaven. Though the modern variant adopted by the Council to justify its rule does not specify any conditions for rebellion, some have assumed that the Union’s flavor of the Mandate implies the right to overthrow the Council in the event of a great failure of the government. As the Union has yet to encounter a catastrophe great enough to warrant considering the Council's legitimacy, this implied power is yet to be tested.

Controversies
See also: Definitions of Fascism

The Union has a history of controversial actions.

Many objectors have criticized the Solar Crusades as imperialist wars intended not to defend the Union but rather to expand its borders at the expense of the conquered peoples. One example of a conflict accused as such are the Automata Wars of the 2nd Solar Crusade; detractors claim that the Union’s premeditated and allegedly unprovoked attack upon the Quarg ringworld implied an intent to occupy the ring by force and destroy its inhabitants. Such an intent conflicts with the Union’s official claim that the attack was reactive and forced by the Quarg’s intervention in a war they were not invited to. Some extend this criticism to all of Manifest Destiny, pointing out that it gives its adherents the apparent moral basis to invade, occupy, and annex other state actors in the name of a nebulous Children of Terra’s Burden.

Some observers warn that the Union and its ideologies contain certain dangerous and tyrannical tendencies that, if left unchecked, will quickly lead to the erosion of established sapient rights frameworks and democratic traditions. These observers draw connections between the Mandate of Heaven and selective populism, Human Exceptionalism and an in-group/out-group mentality, Manifest Destiny and imperialist ambitions, and the Union’s societal scorn against androids as a precursor to state sponsored oppression.