Europeia Applies to Aegis Accords

My fellow Europeians,

Europeia is one of NationStates’ most successful and oldest democratic communities. Protecting Europeia’s community and ensuring the continuation of this Republic is a cornerstone of Europeia’s Foreign Policy agenda. In our new frontier era, this objective takes on an even more poignant importance.

Over the same time as we've prepared our shift to being a frontier, we've seen significant changes to our foreign policy in response to the new aggressive Raider Unity ideology that has gripped the majority of raider organizations. Many old friends and acquaintances have turned their backs, while we've met many new friends to replace them.

As such, I have formally requested accession to the Aegis Accords via the Aegis Council. The Aegis Accords is a multilateral defense treaty between friends both old and new. Our application to Aegis comes at a time of heighted gameside security needs. As a newly converted Frontier, Europeia’s need to safeguard itself through bilateral and multilateral alliances is more important than ever before.

The Aegis Accords and its members offer assurances of mutual defense in the event of foreign aggression, and further strengthens the Republic’s ability to protect itself in a new era of NationStates. Many of the parties to the Aegis Accord will be familiar to you. Europeia enjoys treaty relations with 10000 Islands, The Order of the Grey Wardens, and The League, as well as a non-aggression pact with The South Pacific. Our accession to the Aegis Accord will be an opportunity to engage further with additional partners - Spiritus, The Rejected Realms, and the Union of Democratic States.

With the congregation of new friends, comes questions about historic relations. Europeia is committed to existing treaty obligations and friendships. At the bedrock of Independence is the ability of communities to secure their sovereign right to make decisions that are in the best interests of their members. As the Manifesto states, our decision to pursue meaningful relationships with other communities is based on two things: shared mutually beneficial interests, and respect to sovereign decision making and community self-interest. We remain dedicated to the many fruitful bilateral and multilateral relationships that we have developed over the years that have helped make Europeia the powerhouse it is today.

Thanks to our own persistence and that of our Independent allies, the Independent way of thinking has permeated NS gameplay and regional politics, even as fewer regions choose the Independent label. In that same way, Independent principles - which are fundamentally Europeian principles - will always be at the core of our foreign policy, regardless of the labels we choose. We find ourselves today at a crossroads that we have been approaching for some time. Here, we choose the defender label: to protect our sovereignty, to unabashedly represent our values in a Frontier world, and to deepen our ties with new and old partners alike. Making common cause with other regions that share our values and respect our sovereignty will give our region the best chance of flourishing. The decision to apply to the Aegis Accords is being made through the same lens as all of Europeia’s most historic foreign policy decisions -- through the lens of independent ideals and principles. We have judged, and we hope that you will agree, that we have a lot to gain by broadening our scope of allies.

Subscribing to a label of defender may, at first glance, seem counterintuitive to the ideology of independence itself, so we would like to explain in more detail why our leadership finds joining Aegis and subscribing to a defender label to be a move of pragmatism and in-line with the independent thought-process.

Over the last year and a half, we have seen a thawing of our relationship with defenders. What were once bonds frozen by years of disagreement and strife, were warmed with meaningful cooperation and friendship. Over the last year and a half, we have developed treaties with new friends in The League, 10000 Islands, and The Order of the Grey Wardens, and established a Non-Aggression Pact with an old friend in The South Pacific. These new relationships have been marked by thoughtful collaboration and strong communication.

While our relationships with defenders have taken meaningful and mutually beneficial steps forward, we saw the rise of the dogmatic raider unity movement. Raiderdom has been responsible for several inappropriate antagonisms against Europeia and her allies, including subverting the Land of Kings and Emperors, attempting to launch a coup of Balder, and repeatedly invading Stargate and other allies of The North Pacific. These irreconcilable antagonisms from raiders to Europeia and her allies are based on both disrespect to regional sovereignty and contempt for the interests of our communities. Simply put, raiders have repeatedly and loudly proven to be a threat to the core of Independence.

As has been repeatedly stated by the current leaders of raiderdom, those who do not sign a treaty with raiders are open to attack from them. Our decision to not cow to their threats means Europeia will always remain a military target. To put it concisely, raiders seek to undermine and destroy our community. As a Frontier, the Republic is in a new era where the security of our community is paramount. As raiders seek to destroy our homeland, it makes pragmatic sense to closely partner with defenders through the Aegis Accords.

Our thought process in applying to Aegis is guided by several principles laid out in the Independent Manifesto. Independent communities identify nuanced community interests in making foreign policy decisions such as regional stability, geopolitical influence, developing ties with like-minded regions, and protecting the sovereignty of allies. We believe joining Aegis and adopting a defender label will be beneficial for our regional security. We believe it will help our geopolitical influence, by allowing us to act as a crucial bridge between our allies in the defender sphere and our allies in the independent sphere. We believe it will help us develop ties with like-minded regions. We also believe it will help us protect the sovereignty of allies, as raiders have demonstrated they are an existential threat to the sovereignty of our closest partners.

The Europeian Republican Navy (ERN) is an extension of our foreign policy interests. Our foreign policy interests are clear: we must oppose raiders as fiercely as we can due to the threat they pose to our sovereignty. To that end, we have extensively adjusted the ERN over the last year to wholly focus on operations that align with defender-interests. We have been pleased with the nuance in the defender sphere that allows ERN’s versatile strengths to advance Europeian Foreign Policy goals. We have seen several instances of promising collaboration with defender partners that allows us to conduct offensive operations against raiders, such as our operation in The Eternal Frontier. While several defender communities have remained opposed to joining such offensive operations against raiders, they have demonstrated understanding of our interest in these matters, highlighting the respect that defenderdom has had for our community self-interest. Ultimately, due to the groundwork we have laid over the last year, we feel that this move will not significantly change our current military or political behavior and will, in fact, strengthen it.

Europeia’s historic Independent partnerships remain highly valued to this Administration and to Europeians more broadly. What Europeia will dismiss outright is bellyaching from the same faction that threatens our sovereignty and expects our obedience. I look forward to engaging with questions and thoughts from the Europeian public, and my senior Foreign Affairs leadership is available as we anticipate a response from the Aegis Council and seek ratification of the Accords in the Europeian Senate.

Signed,

Decacon, President of Europeia
Writinglegend, Vice President
PhDre, Minister of Foreign Affairs