Partnership for Sovereignty: A Bright Start but a Long Way To Go
By Qvait
The Partnership for Sovereignty represents a new era for the defendersphere in NationStates. For the first time, defenders have a formal interregional bloc in the World Assembly Security Council, competing alongside the aging World Assembly Legislative League and the nascent Consortium. Initially a three-region bloc between 10000 Islands, the Rejected Realms, and the South Pacific, the PfS gained the Union of Democratic States, the Free Nations Region, and Spiritus within a few weeks of formation, bringing the bloc to six members.
Since coming into existence in late January, the bloc's members have agreed to three joint voting recommendations, and from those recommendations, the PfS emerged on the winning side of two Security Council votes. However, the bloc's failure to block the passage of "Commend King HEM" should come as a warning sign for the PfS and its members. King HEM, the founder of Europeia, a WALL member with a military actively engaged in raiding, received a commendation thanks in no small part because of the support from WALL delegates voting in favor of the resolution. Therein lies the major challenge ahead for the PfS.
While the PfS need not necessarily have an adversarial and confrontational relationship with other blocs, the times when the PfS have to take a different stance than another bloc, such as the WALL, will become a test of strength in influencing public opinion and becoming the deciding factor in whether a proposed resolution passes or fails. If the WALL and PfS take opposing stances on a proposal and all of their delegates vote accordingly, the WALL will always win because of the endorsement surplus they enjoy against the PfS. As of the 9 March major update, the WALL delegates have a combined total of 2,013 endorsements compared to the 1,593 endorsements that PfS delegates have, a differential of 420 endorsements in the WALL's favor.
If the PfS hopes to make its voting power stronger in the Security Council, its member regions will have to find strategies to reduce the endorsement deficit the bloc has to the WALL. For the most part, The North Pacific and other WALL member regions have improved their voting power by developing an endorsement culture that incentivizes residents to endorse their respective delegates, explaining how The North Pacific's delegates have the distinction of consistently having more than 1,000 endorsements. Even if the South Pacific's delegate had the endorsement of all World Assembly members in the region, that nation would only have 968 endorsements as of the 9 March major update.
Tackling the endorsement deficit will take a group effort for the PfS. However, the onus will be on the game-created regions of the South Pacific and the Rejected Realms to get more of their residents interested in being members of the World Assembly and improve their respective delegates' endorsement totals, especially for the former because of its status as a feeder. Accomplishing this task will be no small feat and will need sufficient institutional commitment and support with the help of a robust endotarting program.
The South Pacific has come a long way in its endorsement culture and development. However, there is still plenty that the region can do to improve, and that centers on the development and deployment of an endotarting tool that allows the region's residents to endorse everyone, including the delegate, and a culture that convinces more residents to become World Assembly members. The Rejected Realms will also need to step it up and develop an endorsement culture of its own that allows their delegate to enjoy having more endorsements proportional to its World Assembly population.
Although a user-created region, 10000 Islands has proved to have a robust endorsement culture that allows its delegate to have more endorsements than four delegates from game-created regions in Balder, Lazarus, Osiris, and the Rejected Realms and only have a few less endorsements than the delegate of The Pacific. 10000 Islands is the exception among user-created regions when it comes to their delegate's endorsements, but their endorsement culture is one for both game- and user-created regions to emulate and could serve as a template for any bloc-wide attempt to address the endorsement deficit and develop endorsement cultures within other member regions.
Another way that the PfS can cut into the endorsement deficit is by gaining additional member regions committed to the cause of regional sovereignty. There are multiple ways that the PfS could go about completing this task, which includes adding like-minded defender regions or persuading previously unaffiliated regions to join the predominantly defender bloc. As the Free Nations Region proves by also being a member of the Consortium, cross-membership is indeed a possibility, and any region that is also a member of another bloc can join the PfS. The task at hand is for the PfS to win over additional regions that can reduce the endorsement deficit.
As long as a prospective member region does not commit to having a formal raider alignment or have a troublesome history, they should be able to become a member region of the PfS. The rejection of the League of Conservative Nations' application to join the PfS is evidence enough that the bloc will not be taking on any of the latter, a statement that assumes that their prospective membership failed to materialize because of the region's controversial past. Despite the LCN rejection, the PfS accepted three new regions in their ranks. However, all member regions thus far are overtly defender-aligned, and the PfS will need to do outreach with regions that may not have taken a particular stance on the raider–defender spectrum for further expansion.
Some regions, such as The North Pacific, elect delegates who make promises on outreach to user-created regions, and developing a bloc outreach program may serve fruitful for the PfS. The bloc should make itself sociable and welcoming to many regions, even those that may not identify themselves as defenders. However, the promise of protecting and defending regional sovereignty from those who seek to harm and destroy communities should be enough of a reason for regions to join the PfS. Regardless, it will be incumbent upon leaders in all member regions to harmonize and develop an outreach program that seeks out prospective members.
Aside from the endorsement deficit, the PfS will have to take steps to avoid the stagnation and decay that the WALL has experienced as of late despite its influence in the World Assembly. If the member regions neglect the bloc and take it for granted, the PfS may face the same embattled fate and can avert such stagnation by holding periodic festivals or "summits" among member regions that promote closer ties and bloc unity. These festivities would become useful in keeping the bloc alive and galvanize residents into contributing to the bloc's success in upholding its central commitment to regional sovereignty.
The PfS could also adopt a multi-speed agenda in defender integration, expanding its scope into more than just a Security Council voting bloc. The bloc could accomplish this by developing closer, more formalized inter-military relationships that allow for more effective deployments in military operations and closer cooperation between member regions or cultural ties that bring these communities together and inspire more direct communication between residents than before. Not all member regions need to commit to these projects, but allowing some members to do so under the auspices of the PfS would stimulate activity and interest in the bloc.
Compared to the WALL and the Consortium, the PfS is unique in that all of its members are committed to defender principles and share democratic values. Most WALL member regions are capital-I independent with military alignments that are not necessarily congruent, nor are all of its members committed to democracy. The Consortium is in the same position, but the rest of NationStates have yet to see the bloc's constituting instrument as it appears to be an ongoing work in progress. However, the PfS has the cultural and military ties to build a closer relationship beyond just a simple bloc than either the WALL or Consortium could ever hope to establish, and the future of this relationship depends on the political will of the bloc's regional leaders and residents.
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