Global Organization for Liberty and Defense

The Global Organization for Liberty and Defense, also known as GOLD, is a moderate-sized alliance located in the Yellow sphere. It is currently the only sanctioned alliance within the Yellow sphere.

History
GOLD began as a merger of three of the largest alliances in the yellow sphere, CNDI, BoSS, and Exion. Together, they hoped to bring stability, peace and economic prosperity to their members, and attract more nations to the yellow banner.

GOLD was officially created on October 8th, 2006, but was only open to members of the three merging alliances - Exion, Cyber Nations Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Soverign States. This move was mostly to allow everything to get properly settled before introducing new members to the mix. However, as of October 21, 2006 - approximately 2 weeks after the merger, GOLD was opened to the public. To date, GOLD's member count has almost doubled since opening to the public; a major achievement for an alliance not based from offsite boards.

Though originally setting out to promote neutrality and to help bridge the divide caused by The Great War, GOLD soon signed MDPs first with NAAC and LUE. This came with a plethera of NAPs involving CIS, ROCK, IRON, Shadow Council, ODN, GATO, the Legion, NAAC, and Nordreich.

The Silent_01 Affair
During the months of November and December 2006, GOLD saw steady growth under the leadership of its first Premier Cramzpatio of Somalia. It was during this period that tensions within GOLD reached a breaking point.

A particular member, Silent_01, had repeatedly agitated many members of GOLD and had already caused early issues between GOLD and the NPO. Infamous for manipulations, backing out of tech deals, and general asshattery, Silent_01 finally went too far when, against the specific orders of the GOLD leadership, she ran for Yellow Team Senator, displacing GOLD member Enrique Barrentos. In the conflagration that followed, it was discovered that she secretly edited her application to GOLD, disavowing her oath and leaving the post "EDIT: I wonder if anyone will notice :P".

As it turned out, someone did notice, and she was promptly expelled from GOLD. After refusing the GOLD request that she leave the Yellow Team and her Senate position, Silent_01 was nuked on November 26, 2006, 11:54 PM (CST) by Enrique Barrentos, acting under orders from GOLD's Security Council. Following a quick and decisive flurry of attacks in which Silent_01 lost over 600 infrastructure in a day, she surrendered to the combined forces of GOLD and FAN and switched to the Green Team, reliquishing her senate seat.

Some national rulers within the Yellow Trading Sphere, like Pennglock of FAN, still maintain that Silent_01 is actually closely associated with the Cyber Nations admin team and could quite possibly be one of their girlfriends.

The Second Great War
Most people in the Cybernations community know the story of the Second Great War. In the immediate escalation to the conflict, GOLD joined the League as it's first non-signatory member. When LUE proclaimed that it would come to the defense of any FARK members that joined thier ranks, GOLD prepared for war. With the udeclared war between GOONS and LUE raging, the NAAC decided to come to the aid of their ally and declared that they would defend LUE against any and all enemies. With this entry of NAAC and the continued conflict with LUE, this effectively brought the entire League, including GOLD, into the war.

Following GOLD's declaration of war on all aggressors towards our MDP ally LUE; GOLD members began attacking Initiative nations, primarily those of the NPO. Overall, GOLD's military performed well during the war, capitalizing on their low profile as an alliance (they weren't as prime a target as the NAAC or LUE itself) and the confusion caused by the masses of attacks against the NPO. Because of this, GOLD managed an impressive tally of 3 enemy anarchies for each friendly.

The relatively few anarchies of GOLD members helped alieviate the rebuilding costs in GOLD.

In early April of 2007, the members of the Republic of Cancelled Kombat voted to merge and join GOLD as a part of the same alliance. The official declaration was April 2nd, 2007. This show of good faith has significantly helped out both parties and the promise of a mask is in the near future for GOLD.

The Third Great War
On the 19th March, the NPO and a number of its allies declared war against GATO. This was in response to accusations by the NPO that GATO had been inciting hatred towards NPO and The Initiative, also accusations of GATO spying on the NPO. There was also a leaked correspondence between The Initiative alliances of plans to deal with the allies of GATO if they should come to GATO’s defence. This in turn led to the involvement of the major alliances; The Legion, NAAC, /b/, CDS and ODN. GOLD at the time held PIATs with /b/ and ODN, and there was much debate within GOLD as to whether the alliance should get involved in this war to assist our current allies and former League allies.

On March 25th it was announced to Planet Bob that GOLD would not enter the war, this was not an easy decision to reach but due to the remarkable growth of the alliance in the weeks prior to this point and the soon to be announced merger with R.O.C.K. it was felt entering the war would only serve to undo all the hard work that had now put GOLD into a position to be masked.

Following the conclusion of The Third Great War and the announcement by admin of the audit, GOLD was masked as the 6th strongest alliance on Planet Bob. This was greeted with many BBQs in the alliance and alliance nations, the hard work of many had paid off.

Attempted Disbandment Leads to a Stronger, More Stable GOLD
In June of 2007, tensions in the government began to rise over the proposed Charter changes and a noticeable divide in the government began to appear between the two groups for and against the new Charter. In an attempt to resolve this, several members collaborated on a separate proposal that was a compromise between the two positions. This proposal got the support of major proponents from both sides. All of this came along with a new joint announcement from GOLD and FAN on May 31: the Yellow Number 5 initiative (YN5). YN5 was an announcement that the Yellow trading sphere was off limits to tech raiding and that all nations found tech raiding a yellow nation, regardless of alliance, would be attacked in defense of the Yellow nation. Intended to make Yellow a more desirable trading sphere and increase the number of available trading partners within the Yellow sphere, it quickly became an outlet for the pent up desire for war in GOLD who carried out YN5 missions with zeal. At this time, GOLD was at it's peak with 380 members and a total nation strength of over 3 million.

As many nations were able to get the war experience they desired, several of the more powerful GOLD nations in government desired to get their feet wet and get into the various YN5 actions as well. After a discussion about the charter which brought tensions to an even higher level, two members of the GOLD Senior Security Council, Strungout of Nationalvania and Hannibal of Bat Country broke the charter and performed an outright tech raid on an unaligned nation. On the following day, June 4th, before punishments could be handed out, they both left GOLD to start a new alliance called Purge. This action began the Second GOLD Exodus in which GOLD lost nearly half of her active membership in a period lasting only a week.

With so many resignations and absences, the GOLD Security Council shrunk from a full count of 7 members to 1 Senior Security Councilor and 2 Junior Councilors. The government being largely gone, Thomas20 placed his own charter proposal instead of the compromise proposal before the General Membership in order to ratify it. This angered a remaining member of the Security Council so much that they made a post in the General Discussion board attacking Thomas20 and putting up the compromise proposal for vote. This escalated tensions to the highest point they had ever been in GOLD and Thomas20 became fed up. On June 10th, he attempted to disband GOLD, shut down the forums and IRC channel and then resigned from the alliance. This move was directly opposed by the membership of GOLD and the remaining government impeached him and kept GOLD from disbanding.

It was this period from June 10th to the 12th in which GOLD was perilously unstable and close to falling apart. The power vacuum left by Thomas20 leaving was filled in by Howso of Howsoland who served as interim Premier until General Ego and Dan2680 took control of the government as the remaining SC members. The ministers stepped up to fill the vacant posts of the SC members until more could be elected. On June 12th, the election process began to elect a new Premier. This election ran through the next week until, on June 18th, Varses of Kirsen was elected GOLD's fourth Premier with General Ego as the runner up. On the same day, a spy in GOLD was discovered and expelled and, coincidentally, a major war against GOLD's friend FAN broke out. Only 6 hours after being elected Premier of GOLD, Varses made his first official announcement, declaring neutrality in the WUT/FAN conflict. Following his election, Varses initiated elections for Senior and Junior Security Council and filled up vacancies in the Ministries. For the first time in nearly a month, GOLD had a complete government. Taking advantage of this new government, many changes were made including the creation of a GOLD Academy and the resurgence of diplomacy outside of GOLD.

By the end of June GOLD had taken a major blow but largely had recovered from it. Falling from a member count of 380 at the beginning of the month, GOLD ended the month with 330 members. A total nation strength of over 3 million dropped to 2.7 million by the middle of the month but rose again to 3 million by the end, resulting in no net growth during the month of June. However, the loss of members also raised GOLD's average nation strength greatly to nearly 9 thousand and GOLD's overall score continued to steadily rise throughout June.

As June ended, GOLD had a completely new government. New proposals were being made, and GOLD became more focused on growth once again as the audit approached.

Government
GOLD's central government is constructed of a lead official (The Premier) and 7 Advisors (The Security Council), as well as various other ministries, which change depending on the situation.

The Premier
The Premier is the head of the GOLD alliance. The Premier may serve a term of up to three months, before an election must be held. There is no limit to how many terms a member may hold as Premier.

The Premier has veto rights on any bill that passes the general membership, though a majority vote of the Security Council may counter this veto.

GOLD is now ruled by a tri.

Past Premiers:
Cramzpatio of Somalia, retired with full honours.

Machiabelly of Prince Edward Island, retired with full honours.

Thomas20 of S.N.C.F.W., impeached.

Varses of Kirsen, retired with full honours.

Howso of Howsoland, the final Premnier/destroyer of GOLD.

The Security Council
The Security Council consists of seven GOLD citizens that are chosen through election. These members serve 2 month terms. The Security Councilors are the Premier's official advisors and may give suggestions, advise, and question the Premier. The Security Council has the power to govern the alliance as would the premier per the terms of GOLD's Charter; it is the duty of a councilor to serve the alliance and the charter in such an event. To be nominated for this position, a member must have been a member of the Global Organization for Liberty and Defense for at least 2 months. Each nomination must be seconded. The current Security Council members are as follows:


 * Nintenderek (Until November 20, 2007)
 * Sylterix (Until November 20, 2007)
 * Tushar Dhoot (Until November 20, 2007)

The Judicary Council
The Judiciary Council was the Court of Law for GOLD. Following legislation passed by the GOLD Security Council on March 27, 2007, the Judiciary Council was eventually dissolved as there was not enough infractions by GOLD nations to warrant it's existence. The three Senior Security Council members thus assumed all the duties of the Judiciary Council. This move streamlined trials and expanded the court's sentencing powers to include military actions as per the GOLD Charter.

Any GOLD member may bring a trial before the Security Council members. Should a Senior Security Council member be in question, their position will be temporarily filled by a Junior Security Council member appointed by the Premier. All appeals will be decided by a combined vote of the Junior and Senior Security Council.

Ministers & Ministries
Ministries are seperate departments, all with given powers to help the Security Council with day-to-day tasks. Ministries and their ministers are all created and subject to the Security Council. Ministries can be removed or added at any point by a vote of the Security Council. All ministers are appointed by the Premier with the approval of the SC, and are appointed until they are removed from office or step down.

The Current Ministries (and their Ministers) are as follows:
 * Ministry of Defense (Minister: Madmike)
 * Ministry of External Affairs (Minister: Howso)
 * Ministry of Finance (Minister: Toichus Maximus)
 * Ministry of Internal Affairs (Minister: Open)
 * Ministry of Recruitment (Minister: Vladimir Stukov)
 * Ministry of Education (Minister: Open)

Yellow Senator
GOLD continues to support Enrique Barrentos as their choice for Yellow Senator and he is active in this pursuit, often imposing sanctions on tech raiders attacking semi-active alligned or non-alligned Yellow nations. In this position, he serves the Yellow Sphere as well as GOLD. He also coordinates actions with the current FAN Senators, when necessary, to further speed sanctions in the Yellow Sphere ensuring prompt and accurate assimilation of information and activity.

Treaties
GOLD currently holds NAP's with the IRON, the Shadow Council, Legion, ODN, and GATO. GOLD also has PIATs with IRON, NADC and ODN.

A complete list of GOLD's Treaties can be found Here.