NationStates Jolt Archive

Fellow UN members, I present a proposal that I think you will find interesting, Silk Road. I hope it will go through, but if it doesn't, please feel free to discuss a better version with me. Thank you!

ooc now I realize that the title is a bit bad, should not have _called_ it a proposal ... oops

In future, you should post the text of your proposal, so delegates don't have to go look for it.

Here's a link to it: http://www.nationstates.net/page=UN_proposal1/match=silk

And here's the text:

'Silk Road' Proposal
Category: Free Trade
Strength: Significant
Proposed by: Ultrasilvania

Description: This proposal will allow creation of designated trade routes, be they ground, aerian, maritime, underground or submarine, which the UN will monitor for security, which will allow all nations to transit goods without the need to pay taxes, and with security backed by UN troops.

On these routes, the UN will have complete jurisdiction, and for a nation to trespass this jurisdiction will result in UN motions against this nation, with political and economical bans.

Persons or organizations wishing to enter or use these routes should be allowed by the host nations to do so; leaving the route in order to enter a host nation should be equivalent (in terms of taxes or checking for necessary documentation, as passports, visas, etc) with entering the nation at its usual border - in all respects, the route should be viewed as UN territory, and common border to all host nations, be it ground, maritime, aerian, underground or submarine.

The routes should have, depending on location, accommodations for any kind of travel: for ground travel, highways for cars and trucks, sidewalk for pedestrian use, special passages for handicapped persons, or for bicycles; maritime routes should allow for big ships as well as small boats and rafts; etc. This will allow nations and their citizens, even those of lower income, travel across the world, and trade their wares freely.

This is an interesting proposal. I'm not familiar with the concept of a 'silk road'; would you be able to lay it out in...well, layman's terms?

Thank you, Gruenberg, for the link - I really should've done it myself :( next time I will.

The idea behind 'Silk Road' comes from the old trade route starting in China and going westward (I believe it reached even western Europe, in some sense). Since it was an old and known route, and profitable I believe for host nations, it was a pretty safe road, and quite busy. The name 'Silk' comes from the fact that the Chinese exported silk that way.

(with a grain of salt, here is a lengthy article in wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_road
about it)

The issue in the proposal is similar, but with a control form the part of UN, and more freedom for accessing the routes.

actually, to make one point clear: in the ideal case where the Silk Road would pass through all possible nations, a citizen from any nation could travel to any other nation on this road (say, on foot, or with a raft) cheaply, and, disregarding the time needed to reach the point where the Road reaches the destination nation, for the person it would be as if the origin nation would have a common border with that destination country. One thing this will accomplish, for instance (to put it in real world terms), a person from Mongolia could go to France on foot, without having to get transit visas, pay fees etc in the nations it would have to pass through; only when entering France would the person have to worry about these. And the 'by foot' issue - it could go on a bike, too :)

An interesting idea, but with some practical difficulties.

First, the proposal is clearly illegal, since the Rules for Proposals prohibit the NSUN from having an army, police force, etc.

For land routes, since the NSUN couldn't police the route to prevent illegal immigration and smuggling, our nations would have to to it. We would have to increase our border control capability to control a length equal to 2x the length of the road (i.e., both sides of it). This could be an intolerable burden, especially if more than one route ran through our territory.

Free transit (moving goods through national territory without payment of customs duties or tariffs) is an idea which might deserve further consideration. Unfortunately, we don't think this proposal is a workable approach. We do thank the representative of Ultrasilvania for raising the issue and for the interesting explanation of "Silk Road".

Hurlbot Barfanger
Ambassador-at-Large

I guess one could build the road inside some kind of tunnel ... but I see the point. Btw, irl UN _has_ troops (for peace keping); why wouldn't they be also in NS?

Thank you for the comments, all the same!

Short answer: Because I say so.

Long answer: Since the game has no combat mechanics, there's no way for the UN to have troops; nobody else does either. Since war is entirely roleplayed, there's no way (or desire) to code it in specifically for the UN. Thus, UN Troops are both a Game Mechanics violation and a Metagaming violation (in addition to being its very own violation).

far from me to contest the game mechanics, they have good reasons to be in place - but can one define an abstract state of "secured by the UN", which I guess will draw funds, etc, and make a place somehow "more" inviolable than it actually is (again, just abstractly) ...

I guess one could build the road inside some kind of tunnel ... but I see the point. Btw, irl UN _has_ troops (for peace keping); why wouldn't they be also in NS?

Thank you for the comments, all the same!

OOC:

Ultrasilvania, since I've been active in the NSUN, I've noticed that one of the things that seems very hard for people who are just getting involved to do is to keep in mind that the NSUN is a very different kettle of fish from the RL UN. The RLUN doesn't have member nations on far-off planets. It doesn't have nations populated by dwarves, elves, sentient cats and who knows what else. The NSUN was set up as part of a game and reflects the differences between a game and RL. Its nature was also formed by the ideas and intentions of the folks who created the game.

It's tempting to draw parallels between the RL UN and the NSUN, but that requires caution. It might also be worth your while to spend some time browsing through the Rules for Proposals that are stickied at the top of the UN forum. I think it would help you get a clearer picture of the differences.

Glad to see you active here. Hope you stick around.

Wow. I will not discuss the commendable intentions of the author, but... nevermind the army bit, isn't this tantamount to creating UN sovereign territory???

Wow. I will not discuss the commendable intentions of the author, but... nevermind the army bit, isn't this tantamount to creating UN sovereign territory???

You're already sitting in UN Sovereign Territory

It might be unplottable territory, but you're sitting in it.

That said.....yes.