My Neutrality

Page under construction CloudSpirit (talk &bull; contribs) 03:56, June 23, 2014 (UTC)

Perceptions on the standards of GPA Neutrality from the viewpoint of a senior member, and their implications for some practical matters at hand.

First published by M_a_C_a in July 2012 on GPA's forums, it was written as one member's viewpoint of the GPA's neutrality with respect to various alliance aspects.

Preface
Having retired from an active role in the daily operations of the alliance, I have still made an attempt to maintain a strong presence in the community of Green Protection Agency by following and commenting the discussions on alliance politics and gameplay tactics that take place in our Forums. Recently, I have observed that these discussions have become energized with new ideas that often portray a more liberal stance on a variety of issues that have traditionally been considered constrained or regulated by the Neutrality of the alliance. These issues include the Foreign aid violations policy, the OWRP gag order and short-term Military co-operation with other alliances against rogue nations, as well as Alliance-sponsored tech deal initiatives with other alliances. My own perception of the discussion has been that the members who promote these ideas often back up their case by arguments arising from viewpoint, whereas those such as myself who oppose these changes respond by remarks stemming from the viewpoint of GPA Neutrality. This often leads to a situation where the discussion is no longer just about the matter at hand, but also touches the various realizations of Neutrality the involved parties possess, and their differences.

Realizing this has lead me to take a slightly more passive role in these debates for the time being, because it has become evident that no conclusive discussion is possible without expanding towards the concept of GPA Neutrality itself; a difficult and daunting topic that has not seen much actual discussion in GPA so far. This treatise is an attempt to open proper discussion towards the actual realization of Neutrality that is prevalent in the alliance today. Here, I will try to outline what GPA Neutrality really means to me on a principled level, by first formulating certain principles that govern my beliefs, and then apply these principles in the aforementioned "hot topics" that have seen discussion within the alliance as of late, as well as some other interesting cases of example. It is my hope that this approach may concretize the otherwise very theoretical ideas.

My goal in this treatise is to demonstrate that while such issues may appear very practical and sterile at the first glance, they are in fact very inherently tied to our practical realization of Neutrality. It follows that while considering our stance to these affairs, it is not sufficient to merely consider the practical viewpoints; the aspects of Neutrality cannot be disregarded in the discussion, and should, as our guiding ideal, in fact take precedence in decision-making. At present, I feel that they are often not sufficiently considered when it comes to questions dealing with the policies and practices that interface GPA with foreign parties.

Introduction
The Section I of the GPA Charter lists the governing virtues of GPA as Neutrality, Sovereignty and Protection. Neutrality is defined as follows:

''1. Neutrality. The GPA shall pursue friendly, peaceful and impartial conduct toward all other nations and alliances, maintaining a strict stance of political and military neutrality.''

The Preamble of the GPA Declaration of Neutrality also contains a similar statement:

The Principles and Values of the Green Protection Agency (GPA) require that all GPA nations are legally bound to pursue friendly and impartial conduct toward all other nations and Alliances and maintain strict military and political neutrality and non-intervention.

Neutrality is therefore defined as a type of a universal stance or attitude towards foreign entities that in practice manifests itself as non-involvement into certain aspects of inter-alliance politics. Yet, these are the only definitions the Charter and the DoN directly provide; clearly, the clauses are open for interpretation. I will herein make an attempt to clarify my own interpretation on the subject, that is mainly based on the aforementioned official documents of our alliance, as well as my own experience as an active GPA Member and former government official.

Having considered the issue thoroughly, I've decided to break our Neutrality down into five Principles through which I believe it can be sufficiently defined in practice. I shall call them the Principles of Non-involvement, Impartiality, Sovereignty, Reciprocity and Perpetuity. These principles are intended as my own standards of practical GPA Neutrality. I recognize that they are my personal interpretation only; I take into account that it is very possible they may not be correct, and that they are subject to possible amendments if I'm proven wrong. Nevertheless, they represent what I must live by, when the practical aspects of our interaction with the rest of CN are discussed. For everyone else, they do not need to serve as anything more than mere food for further thought on the path towards an unified GPA Ideology of Neutrality, that provides us with a mutually acceptable moral framework that we can lean on in all our interactions with foreign parties.