Autonomous City-states
18-10-2007, 16:31
James' Guide to Military Affairs - Strategic Outlook
Ragnar Johannes reporting
The Federation of Autonomous City-states is one of the older and more established nations in the world, as evidenced by its massive population, world-renowned arcologies, and the successful spinoff of the Martian colonies into a friendly and independent nation-state of their own. However, the past few decades saw a dramatic shift in Federation politics away from the extensive international political engagement seen under Secretary-General Ericsson's long tenure. Upon his retirement to pursue his interests in private industry and to spend more time with his family, the various political groups that had allied under his firm, but unifying hand splintered amongst themselves to put forward their own successor.
While transnational and off-world trade and tourism remained strong, FACS politics became surprisingly insular as the largest city-states, Port Alexandria, New Babylon, New Detroit, and Nova City, began to exercise greater independence from each other and international relations took a back seat to internal disagreements. The office of the Secretary-General of the Federation easily reached its nadir in terms of influence and power during this time. The Federation military forces had enjoyed a close and mutually beneficial relationship with Sec-Gen Ericsson, but also found their concerns sidelined as the city-states jockeyed amongst themselves for increased economic and political strength. The Ground Forces and the Aerospace Forces found most of their new acquisitions budgets cut and the Navy, still the most powerful of the FACS' services, had to scale back expansion plans dramatically. The FACS colony at Uranus found immigration from the homeland come to a standstill and has essentially functioned independently for the past ten years, sustaining itself on fusion fuel shipments to Mars.
Board members of the Transdynamics Consortium tried to re-energize the federal system by relaunching its popular series of blended-wing body intercontinental airliners to attract greater interest from foreign travelers and force domestic groups to take notice. Despite making a hefty profit on the revamped line and establishing several new foreign customers, these efforts did not translate into a political shift at home and the federal government remained weak. With the rise in popularity of 'reality' entertainment and sports pitting citizens of the city-states against one another, the populace couldn't be bothered to care about other countries and the civic leaders intended to hang on to the power they had accumulated.
However, an unexpected shift was about to come from an unlikely segment of the population. Sapient AI have long enjoyed full sentient rights in the Federation and are completely integrated into the public social structure. They had long remained a sort of community unto themselves focused on good citizenship through service and non-interference in the affairs of biological organisms, though. The success of Persephone as Duma representative for the Martian CityStates, though, awakened the SAI to the possibility of effecting greater change through being politically active. Almost overnight, the SAI-founded Alliance for Change became a major factor in the political sphere and enlisted the aid of human technocratic and transhumanist parties dominated by young Statesmen tired of the inter-city squabbling.
The Alliance for Change's first major success was the establishment of a federal public service project based on the service requirement for public office that drew on Statesmen youth from every municipality to do internships working on national-level projects like cleaning federal nature reserves, rebuilding artificial reefs, and other projects that required teamwork and ingenuity. These interns would then go home with a greater sense of national identity and a better understanding of what value their fellow Statesmen in other cities had. This 'grassroots' effort began a bottom-up change in the Federation where the top-down approach of the corporations had failed.
With the rising support for federalism amongst young Statesmen and the increasing political power of sapient AI, it only took a few years before SAI began winning elections to public office on the support from segments of the population that had typically been disinterested in politics before. Recognizing the coming changes, the Federation military services used their traditional independence and the virtually figurehead status of the Secretary-General's office to institute their own reforms and allow sapient AI into the command ranks for the first time.
Six months ago, the first SAI was elected to Secretary-General on a platform of national unity and rebuilding the federal system. Secretary-General Artabanes easily defeated his opponents in the isolationist parties because they could not agree amongst themselves who to elevate to oppose him. The new Secretary-General enjoys widespread support amongst young human voters, the SAI community, and the Federation military. Federal sales taxes are being enforced once again, but Artabanes has successfully headed off opposition from the corporate sector by giving out contracts to update federal government computer networks and infrastructure and providing funding to the military for new acquisitions and development programs.
In particular, the Navy and the Aerospace Forces have been given funding to rebuild their ability to conduct power projection. New sea control ships are reportedly in the pipeline to replace the venerable Leviathans and the Aerospace Forces are rumored to be looking into air battlespace control vehicles, or "flying fortresses", designed to match the Navy's power projection capability. The Ground Forces are confirmed to be developing new bipedal combat units and unmanned tactical vehicles.
Ragnar Johannes reporting
The Federation of Autonomous City-states is one of the older and more established nations in the world, as evidenced by its massive population, world-renowned arcologies, and the successful spinoff of the Martian colonies into a friendly and independent nation-state of their own. However, the past few decades saw a dramatic shift in Federation politics away from the extensive international political engagement seen under Secretary-General Ericsson's long tenure. Upon his retirement to pursue his interests in private industry and to spend more time with his family, the various political groups that had allied under his firm, but unifying hand splintered amongst themselves to put forward their own successor.
While transnational and off-world trade and tourism remained strong, FACS politics became surprisingly insular as the largest city-states, Port Alexandria, New Babylon, New Detroit, and Nova City, began to exercise greater independence from each other and international relations took a back seat to internal disagreements. The office of the Secretary-General of the Federation easily reached its nadir in terms of influence and power during this time. The Federation military forces had enjoyed a close and mutually beneficial relationship with Sec-Gen Ericsson, but also found their concerns sidelined as the city-states jockeyed amongst themselves for increased economic and political strength. The Ground Forces and the Aerospace Forces found most of their new acquisitions budgets cut and the Navy, still the most powerful of the FACS' services, had to scale back expansion plans dramatically. The FACS colony at Uranus found immigration from the homeland come to a standstill and has essentially functioned independently for the past ten years, sustaining itself on fusion fuel shipments to Mars.
Board members of the Transdynamics Consortium tried to re-energize the federal system by relaunching its popular series of blended-wing body intercontinental airliners to attract greater interest from foreign travelers and force domestic groups to take notice. Despite making a hefty profit on the revamped line and establishing several new foreign customers, these efforts did not translate into a political shift at home and the federal government remained weak. With the rise in popularity of 'reality' entertainment and sports pitting citizens of the city-states against one another, the populace couldn't be bothered to care about other countries and the civic leaders intended to hang on to the power they had accumulated.
However, an unexpected shift was about to come from an unlikely segment of the population. Sapient AI have long enjoyed full sentient rights in the Federation and are completely integrated into the public social structure. They had long remained a sort of community unto themselves focused on good citizenship through service and non-interference in the affairs of biological organisms, though. The success of Persephone as Duma representative for the Martian CityStates, though, awakened the SAI to the possibility of effecting greater change through being politically active. Almost overnight, the SAI-founded Alliance for Change became a major factor in the political sphere and enlisted the aid of human technocratic and transhumanist parties dominated by young Statesmen tired of the inter-city squabbling.
The Alliance for Change's first major success was the establishment of a federal public service project based on the service requirement for public office that drew on Statesmen youth from every municipality to do internships working on national-level projects like cleaning federal nature reserves, rebuilding artificial reefs, and other projects that required teamwork and ingenuity. These interns would then go home with a greater sense of national identity and a better understanding of what value their fellow Statesmen in other cities had. This 'grassroots' effort began a bottom-up change in the Federation where the top-down approach of the corporations had failed.
With the rising support for federalism amongst young Statesmen and the increasing political power of sapient AI, it only took a few years before SAI began winning elections to public office on the support from segments of the population that had typically been disinterested in politics before. Recognizing the coming changes, the Federation military services used their traditional independence and the virtually figurehead status of the Secretary-General's office to institute their own reforms and allow sapient AI into the command ranks for the first time.
Six months ago, the first SAI was elected to Secretary-General on a platform of national unity and rebuilding the federal system. Secretary-General Artabanes easily defeated his opponents in the isolationist parties because they could not agree amongst themselves who to elevate to oppose him. The new Secretary-General enjoys widespread support amongst young human voters, the SAI community, and the Federation military. Federal sales taxes are being enforced once again, but Artabanes has successfully headed off opposition from the corporate sector by giving out contracts to update federal government computer networks and infrastructure and providing funding to the military for new acquisitions and development programs.
In particular, the Navy and the Aerospace Forces have been given funding to rebuild their ability to conduct power projection. New sea control ships are reportedly in the pipeline to replace the venerable Leviathans and the Aerospace Forces are rumored to be looking into air battlespace control vehicles, or "flying fortresses", designed to match the Navy's power projection capability. The Ground Forces are confirmed to be developing new bipedal combat units and unmanned tactical vehicles.