United Sovereign Nations

Forward
We, the members of the United Sovereign Nations, do hereby draft this charter to provide a constant and secure alliance on the Maroon Sphere for the membership, quality and freely elected leadership, and a strong and growing member base.

Section 1. The Administrative Council
The Administrative Council is the executive governing power of the government within the United Sovereign Nations and shall hold a term of four months. The Administrative Council will always consist of three councilors, always equal in power, which use a 2/3-majority vote to settle alliance wide matters and govern the High Coucil. Administrative Councilors are also the forum administrators of the alliance forums and are charged with its operation and management.

Section 2. Powers of the Administrative Council
The Administrative Council holds the authority to:
 * a. Declare war and make other such decisions, which involve relations and acts with other alliances for the alliance as a whole.
 * b. Individual Council members may do all the above, but only for alliance members other then themselves and not for the alliance by themselves.
 * c. Make Treaties with foreign alliances with a 2/3-majority vote.

Section 3. Powers over the Ministries
The Administrative Council holds the authority to:
 * Create and appoint High Councilers/Ministries with a 2/3-majority vote.

Section 4. Powers over the High Council
The Administrative Council holds the authority to:
 * a. Pass any proposition passed by the High Council, with a 2/3-majority vote. If the proposition fails to achieve a 2/3-majority vote it will be voided
 * b. Unanimously appoint temporary members to the High Council if there are any vacancies.

Section 5. Disentitlement of an Administrative Council Member
Administrative Councillors will be removed from office if impeached and by a vote of no confidence if they commit crimes or other unacceptable behavior.

Section 1. The Ministries
The Ministries are controlled by the appropriate Minister/Security General. A minister or the Security General can appoint members to their specific departments to share or delegate ministry powers, to them with the operation of their ministries. These ministries are the:
 * a. Ministry of Defense, headed by the Security General. Overseeing all military action. The Security General and department members are responsible for approving wars for the defense and protection of the Alliance and its members. The Security General is also responsible for the organization of the armed forces, and advising the Administrative Council in military matters.
 * b. Ministry of Economics, headed by the Minister of Economics. They are responsible for economic matters in the alliance, such as but not limited to: Aid transactions, economic alliance growth programs, and look out for the upkeep of member financial nations.
 * c. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, it is responsible for the public image of the alliance, and communication with foreign alliances, and also for dealing with the day-to-day issues of foreign affairs related to the United Sovereign Nations, as well as bringing up important external alliance news items.
 * d. Ministry of Interior Affairs, headed by the Minister of Interior Affairs. Responsible for internal alliance matters, including the ministry of Justice. They are also responsible for making sure members are informed by posting relevant information about the game or points brought up in the alliance, such as questions or complaints and general alliance information. The Minister of Interior Affairs enforces the charter.
 * e. Ministry of Recruitment, headed by the Minister of Recruitment, it is responsible for all recruiting matters in the alliance. The Ministry of Recruitment controls recruiting programs and assigning recruiting positions to members, answer the questions of potential recruits, as well as being responsible for nation background checks of applying nations. The Minister and selected department members are responsible for approving membership applications.

Section 2. Executive powers of the Ministries
The Ministers and Security General hold the authority to:
 * Draft and execute executive orders for their respective ministries.

Section 1. The High Council
The High Council will hold a term of two months and consist of five members. High Councilors are elected delegates for the five major ministries outlined in Article II, and are to represent the General Assembly in all voting/proposals. High Councilors shall be the Global Moderators of the alliance forums and are charged with forum management and organization. The High Council has government powers given to them by the Administrative Council.

Section 2. Legislative power of the High Council
The High Council holds the authority to:
 * a. Suggest and pass laws with a 4/5-majority vote.
 * b. Transfer voting/proposition powers to another branch with a 4/5-majority vote.

Section 3. Powers over the Executive
The High Council holds the authority to:
 * a. Approve laws from the Alliance Council with a 4/5-majority vote.
 * b. Appoint temporary Administrative Councilors with a 4/5-majority vote if there are any vacancies.

Section 4. Disentitlement of a High Councilor
A High Councilor will be removed from office if impeached, and by a vote of no confidence if they commit crimes or other unacceptable behavior.

Section 1. The General Assembly
The General Assembly is the collection of all nations making up the United Sovereign Nations. All members are guaranteed freedom unless found guilty of a crime. Each Assembly member of the United Sovereign Nations is granted freedom of speech and expression on the alliance boards. All members are given the right to vote and run for government office, as well as put forward plans/ideas to the government for further discussion.

Section 2. Membership
Nations applying for membership must file an Application that will be reviewed by the Ministry of Recruitment. Membership may not be removed from this alliance by the whim of the government, unless they have broken the rules of the charter, a contract or are found guilty of a high crime.

Section 3. Offensive Action
No nation of the United Sovereign Nations may engage in offensive actions without the direct public consent of the Security General or the Administrative Council. Members engaging in offensive action without the direct consent, will have their membership nullified if they continue to engage in offensive actions after they have been warned to cease.

Section 4. Reparations
Any nation of the United Sovereign Nations has the right to receive reparations and assistance if attacked by an aggressor in an unsanctioned war.

Section 5. Powers over the government
The General Assembly holds the authority to:
 * a. Call for the impeachment of a government official; create a vote for the removal of a government official or the removal of an executive order.
 * b. Reverse a ruling with a petition signed by 70% of the General Assembly.
 * c. Repeal an executive order or law with a 70% majority vote in a 3 day poll.
 * d. Remove a government official with a petition signed by 70% of the General Assembly.

Section 1. Administrative Council Election
The Administrative Council holds a term of four months. Nominations for candidacy will begin ten days before the end of the term, and elections will begin seven days before the end of the term, polls will be open for three days.

Section 2. High Council Election
The High Council holds a term of two months. Nominations for candidacy for each specific ministry will begin seven days before the end of the term, and elections will begin four days before the end of the term, polls will be open for three days.

Section 3. Ties
In the case of a tie vote, a special two day election runoff will be held between the candidates to break the tie.

Section 4. Appointing Temporary Officials
If an official of the government will be absent for an extended amount of time, they may appoint a member to temporarily replace them and serve in their place while they are absent. If they intend to be absent for the rest of their term or more than a month, a replacement will be appointed by the government to take their place.

Section 5. Limited Government Positions
Government officials may not accept office of multiple elected positions, but may run for multiple positions. In the case a member is elected to multiple positions, they must choose which position to accept, and shall then withdraw from the other positions. However, any member may hold multiple non-elected positions even if they are currently in an elected position, unless otherwise specified.

Section 6. Vote of No Confidence
All members of the United Sovereign Nations are granted the authority to motion for a vote of no confidence in any government official and remove them from government. Such persons may be removed from office using two of the following process:
 * a. 70% majority vote from the General Assembly in a 2 day poll.
 * b. 4/5-majority vote from the High Council.
 * c. Unanimous agreement of the Administrative Council.

Section 1. Formal Amendments
If deemed necessary by any member of the United Sovereign Nations, an Amendment proposal may be made to the Alliance Government. An Amendment will pass if at least one of the following requirements is met:
 * a. Three day 70% majority vote from the General Assembly, 4/5-majority vote from the High Council, and a 2/3-majority from the Administrative Council.
 * b. Signed Petition from 70% of the General Assembly.

Section 2. Informal Amendment
Any proposition passed by the High Council, and also passed by the Administrative Council as a law or treaty is an informal amendment. The informal amendment does not and cannot add or remove from the charter, but is treated as an amendment. Any informal amendments that break the principles of the charter will automatically be removed. There shall be a topic in the archives for members to publicly view all informal amendments made by the elected government.

Maroon Allied Guardian's Failure Sparks Discontent
The main contributing factor that led to the formation of United Sovereign Nations was a failed merger between the old TAGA alliance and ONOS. Several members felt that their input regarding the changes that were to occur with the merger were completely ignored. As such, there was some tension between the incoming ONOS members and the old TAGA members. Due to the hostility, ONOS decided that they would be better off remaining on their own. ONOS withdrew from the merger, and left MAG in shambles. With the apparent lack of power over the policies and actions of TAGA/MAG, a core group of MAG members started to discuss the founding of a new alliance governed by a representative democracy to ensure that all members have a voice in the leadership of the alliance. These discussions took place during the latter portion of September 2006.

USN Opens Doors & Goes Neutral
In October 2006, the core group of MAG members that were dissatisfied with the current status of the alliance left MAG to open the doors to USN. Amazonian Beasts, Marine91, Someone the Greate, Prozach, Scuba Lumberjack, Flyskate, King IB, and Rebel Strike were among the first members of USN, and contributed greatly to its founding and initial practices. United Sovereign Nations privately opened the forums on October 16, 2006, and announced its existence to the world on October 29th with the opening of a recruitment topic. The alliance was comprised of roughly 30 members formerly from TAGA/MAG, and despite the time involved with discussing the founding of a new alliance, there was no pre-written charter or any other policies decided before that actual founding. The early weeks of USN were spent discussing how the government should be setup (it was clear that it was to be a democracy, but positions and the electoral process hadn't been discussed yet). An interim government was appointed, and discussions regarding a charter and foreign policies. The original charter for United Sovereign Nations was ratified on October 31. Along with the ratification of the charter, it was decided that United Sovereign Nations would remain militarily and financially neutral from other alliances on Planet Bob. The decision was reached fairly easily considering the existing tension between the secessionists and their former allies in MAG (later reformed as Maroon Defence Coalition), and the inability to offer any meaningful support to other alliances.

Though not truly neutral in the strictest sense, as the members of USN were allowed to vocalize opinions for or against other alliance's actions or policies. Though they remained neutral in the aspect that unless directly involved in a conflict USN would not militarily of financially support either party. There was also an alliance ban on treaties that involve mandatory support as they would be against our interests in neutrality.

The CKA times
The Canada Kicks Ass Alliance joined up with USN en toto in November 2006 and started being active and respected members. They helped the alliance grow and become more respected throughout the Cyberverse.

COWT destruction
A bunch of rogues from COWT decided to attack USN and to not pay reparations. Even though USN was neutral, the military wiped out all of COWT, and ZI'ed many of their members. COWT was disbanded shortly after the members fled or were ZI'ed.

Major Development
When the USN had around 70 members, DaMan, Iamkoolerthanu, and Osama EBW decided to recruit. They recruited around 40 members put together in the matter of a couple weeks. They kick started recruiting for USN and made them a power of the maroon team. The USN also got 5 or 6 NAPs during this time also, most importantly though was a NAP with the MDC. The MDC is what MAG became after USN broke off.

Amazonian Beasts leaves
Shortly after USN hit 100 members, Amazonian Beasts decided CN wasn't as fun as it used to be, he thought he didn't have enough to do since the USN was doing all of the stuff ASB wanted to do already. He gave out all of his money and tech to friends and USN members, and quit his Admin Council Job and deleted his nation.

Attempted USN Infiltration
The USN was being infiltrated by 'The Order', a group of Neo-Nazis from Stormfront. Targeting the USN because of its very democratic charter, their intention was to slowly take over the alliance and kick out those who did not follow their white supremacist ideals. The idea was to then bring in their own members to build an alliance, which they could not do on their own.

A Stormfront informer leaked to USN admins information with a list of nations in on the plot. The USN administration then embarked on a counter-terrorism mission within the USN boards to weed out the offenders. On Thursday May 10, 2007, the USN administration felt that the time had come to unveil their knowledge of the Stormfront plot. Massive war was declared upon all involved nations, and within hours the vast majority of offending nations were left languishing in ZI.

2 Million Nation Strength
In October 2007 the United Sovereign Nations surpassed the 2,000,000 nation strength mark. Shortly after that accomplishment, admin changed the value of technology and the NS of USN dropped significantly. This was not a major problem, as USN switched to focus on buying infra. and growing further more.

One Vision-No Vision Conflict
Upon the declaration of war on the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization on April 28, 2008, the Commonwealth of Sovereign Nations declared their intent to defend their MDP allies. As a result, several alliances in turn declared war on the CSN, and as MDP allies of the CSN, the USN got involved and declared war on the Siberian Tiger Alliance. This resulted in a myriad of alliances declaring war upon the USN to protect their allies. This war went on for approximately 3 weeks before white peace was declared by The Continuum along with STA a week earlier.

Cancellation of MDP with The Phoenix Collective
As a casualty of the One-Vision/No-Vision conflict, the MDP with the Phoenix Collective was canceled when an overzealous TPC Minister informed their Prime Minister that the USN had attacked a BLEU nation and the treaty was initially cancelled. When confronted with evidence of the mistake, the cancellation was rescinded, but the damage had already been done and the USN cancelled the pact on their own end, citing a disappointment in the lack of communication on the issue and the TPC's willingness to defend an economic pact over a friendship of some years.

Upgrades
In the weeks following the One Vision-No Vision Conflict the USN upgraded two of it's most important treaties. To show the strong bond between CSN and USN the treaty between them was upgraded to an MADP. USN also upgraded the treaty with UPN to a MDoAP solidifying their already strong realtionship.

The United Sovereign Nations and The Angels of the Realm Merge
On August 13th, 2008, the alliance known as The Angels of the Realm merged completely into the USN. This truly was a full circle revelation, due to the fact that AotR was created by former members of WhatYouSeeIsWhatYouGet (WYSIWYG), which in turn was created by former members of the National Organization of Neutrals (NOON), which was created by former members of the United Sovereign Nations. This event finally closed one darker chapter in USN's past, reuniting old foes as friends and allies.

The USN Joins The Common Defense Treaty
On October 29th, 2008, the day of the USN's second year of existence, the United Sovereign Nations was voted unanimously into the Common Defense Treaty Mutual Defense and Optional Aggression Bloc. This marked another step in the USN's increasing political influence in the Cyberverse.

The Founding of the Chestnut Accords
On December 27th 2008, the USN signed the Chestnut Accords as a founding alliance. The Chestnut Accords is an MDP and Economic bloc aimed at uniting the Maroon sphere. Although "Maroonity" has been tried through several different treaties in the past, this treaty was a truly remarkable step towards completely unifying the Maroon sphere.

Karma War
More recently USN became embroiled in the events surrounding the Karma War. At the time they maintained their neutrality with steadfast resistance. This was met with harsh criticism within the alliance which caused a significant number of players to resign from USN. The majority of the members who departed joined up with former mutual defense partner CSN in the war against the Global Democratic Alliance, while a former Administrative Councilor joined Vox Populi against the New Pacific Order. The following government elections saw many previously unknown nations become High Councilors.

History Lost
Shortly after this, the USN forums were deleted, the exact circumstances of how this happened are still unclear, but the result was that USN was left moving between several attempts at forums, aided by their allies in GDA, until they found a good home on their current forums. While the new forums were stable and allowed USN to continue to function, none of the old posts were available and much of USNs history and heritage was lost.

Withdrawing from Chestnut Accords
At the same time, USN was reviewing it's treaties in the wake of the Karma War. The decision to remain neutral in the conflict had caused divisions within the alliance that the government were eager to avoid happening again. The main question that was raised was whether the alliance could remain a member of both the Chestnut Accords and CDT.

After discussion, the USN government voted to withdraw from the Chestnut Accords. This move was seen as controversial by many outside the alliance and met with hostile response from the remaining signatories.

Legal Changes
October saw a new government take office after the elections and also saw some changes to the charter and other documents. The charter itself was reworded to try and simplify sections of the text, as well as changing some powers of the government and making the Admin council terms of office longer.

Aside from this, USN also saw the introduction of "Boomerang Doctrine" which states that any returning members require a majority vote from government before they can be accepted.

Second Unjust War
On January 20th 2010 the New Polar Order declared war upon \m/, four days later The Stickmen declared war upon the NpO via their treaty with FOK! (who had declared the day before.) USN was therefore brought into the war via their treaty with the New Polar Order and at update on January 25th declared war on iFOK and FCO. Four days later on January 29th white peace was agreed between USN, STA, NpO and The Stickmen.

January also saw the latest round of Admin Council and High Council elections, once again several new faces were seen as only two out of the previous five HC members remained in office, it also saw britwarlord resigning from the alliance and Vladisvok Destino filling his seat in the AC.

USN soon found itself at war with the Stickmen again, on February 10th USN declared war, this time in support of their allies in Invicta. While USNs initial strikes were focused on FCO and iFok, SLCB issued a statement recognising a state of war with USN the following day and Fok also declared on USN on the 12th.

As the war continued USN also found itself declared upon by FAIL and the Viridian Entente on February the 18th.

On February the 24th USN was granted peace by the Stickmen, FOK, and VE, on the condition that USN did not re-enter the war and did not aid anyone still involved in the war.

Post-war USN
At the Beginning of April the alliance saw the latest session of the government come into office. This period has been marked by an increase in activity and membership. The latest government (and previous) put an increasing emphasis on improving the economic sector of the alliance, leading to a better base for future programmes.

USN also saw changes in other areas. The forums were reorganised to improve usability and increase their Allies ability to interact on the forums, for example, the Tech Deal forum became open to some of USN's closer allies. In foreign affairs USN also saw a new treaty signed with The Foreign Division and an upgrade with their long time friends in the Global Democratic Alliance.

USN then re-reached 1 Million Nation Strength on May 11th. In early June the latest government took office with Gofast2006, Rylejed, and Dexomega retaining their respective positions on the High Council. Lokilockpicker gained the third seat on the Administrative Council.

By the end of July, USN had reached 160 members. This growth of the alliance was spurred on by the newest incarnation of the recruitment team. Once again USN entered a fairly prosperous era of growth.