History of the International

Summary
The International had been a long time coming. In a sense, it had been coming ever since the Communist Party of Cybernations was founded in September of 2007, with the purpose of bridging the diplomatic gaps that at that time existed between the "libertarian socialist" and "authoritarian socialist" tendencies embodied by the Libertarian Socialist Federation and the Socialistic Empire. It had been foreshadowed by the signature of CADRE in November 2008, and by the signature of Mutual Defense and Optional Aggression pacts between the CPCN, SE, and TRF at around the same time. In a more immediate sense, its origins lie in several discussions and conversations that took place in mid-to-late November of 2008. Around that time, the CPCN had been discussing on their boards the possibility of a merger with SE. SE had been even more ambitious, discussing the possibility of a Grand Leftist Merger between SE, CPCN, and all the smaller alliances that were then members of the Warsaw Pact. Ironically, major elements in both CPCN and SE thought that the other would be resistant to the other's proposals, so resistant that the ventures would collapse altogether.

These elements were overcome in a discussion that SE DipCom Ivanfed, as well as SE member StalinTrotsky had with CPCN CoFA Sovyet Gelibolu over MSN in late November. They shared the nature of the discussions their respective alliances had undertaken, and were utterly flabbergasted at their convergence (some disconnects remained; those will be examined in a moment). They rushed back to tell their alliances, and within two days the SE Commissariat had been opened to CPCN diplomats so that they might discuss the details of the merger.

It was the ironing out of these details that occupied most of December. Should the merger be bilateral, or should it be open to all leftists who wanted to take part? Would the new alliance be a confederation, or would it have a unitary system of government (this question was tied to the previous question; it was felt by some that the more alliances involved, the more a confederation might be necessary)? How democratic or autocratic would the alliance be? What would be its symbolism, roleplay style, and name? Where would its forums be, and who would host them? How should the first government be chosen? Would any treaties carry over, and if so, which? On what team would the new alliance be?

Some of these questions were more easily decided than others. The question of democracy versus autocracy was settled almost immediately in favor of democracy, as the CPCN had been a direct democracy with its Central Committee responsible to the membership from the first while SE had, over the course of its history, moved towards a system of consultative representative democracy. There might have been a flare-up over direct versus representative democracy, but this, along with the more troublesome issue of confederation versus unitarism, was settled when Sovyet Gelibolu proposed the first draft Constitution. This would undergo many superficial changes over the course of the next few weeks, but the principles of unitarism and of CPCN-style direct democracy were never altered. Nobody bothered to propose an alternative draft, and this Constitution became "the" Constitution over the course of the negotiations, despite never having been put to a formal vote (incidentally, this made it easier to make the minor corrections as the negotiations proceeded). These two burning issues having been laid quietly to rest, it remained to settle the others. It was decided within the first couple of days that other alliances should have the option to join in the project if they desired, and accordingly the CADRE and Warsaw Pact alliances were made aware of the negotiations on December 5. This event was important for several reasons: it made the merger essentially public knowledge, and set the precedent of informing other alliances before the announcement date, thus making the carrying-over of treaties possible; it set down the principles already agreed-upon by the CPCN and SE negotiators as non-negotiable, presenting the other leftist alliances with a fait accompli of either remaining seperate or joining a unitary, democratic alliance; and it marked TRF's enterence into the negotiations (LSF and the rest of the Warsaw Pact alliances declined to participate).

From this point, the questions of team color, treaties, and name took prominence and, compared to the swift decisions of the earlier period, seemed to drag on and on. Team color was the subject of most of the actual wrangling, with the benefits and demerits of Orange, Black, and Multicolored-ness debated for most of December. Being a multicolored alliance had several serious demerits, namely the inability to be included in color-based economic treaties, and the difficulty of being able to arrange many intra-alliance trade sets, but it had the advantage of not making members change color and of appealing to the freedom-loving sensibilities of most of the negotiators, who recoiled from coercion. The Black Sphere, being larger, offered more trade opportunities, while the Orange Sphere, given CPCN's relative closenes with Orange powers compared to SE's and TRF's relations with the Black powers, offered more diplomatic opportunities. Eventually a combination of CPCN intransigence on the issue and the prospect of a spot in the Orange Senate rotation led to the decision that the new alliance would be Orange, though members would not be forced to change immediately.

The name took so long because it was the only aspect of the negotiations to be submitted to membership votes, and because of the sheer number of options involved. During the CPCN-SE phase of the negotiations, the options had been whittled down to United Communist Party or The International. TRF, however, insisted on the name expressing a broader Leftist orientation given their largely non-Communist membership, and at the same time several new alternatives were proposed and some old ones dredged up again, leading to new discussions and new votes. Few of the negotiators really liked the The International, but it kept winning SE's votes and it satisfied TRF's demands.

The issue of treaties was the issue that kept the merger from being announced in late December, and it was the issue that occupied most of January. It had been decided early that each alliance would attempt to carry over as many of its treaties as it possibly could (minus BPI because of INT's Orange affiliation), but over the course of their existence CPCN, SE, and TRF had accumulated a number of treaties. TRF split over this issue; one of their treaty partners deigned not to carry its treaty with TRF over to The International, and many TRFers did not want to lose the friendship of this partner. They announced that they would not be joining The International, but would continue as TRF even after the announcement. SE and CPCN experienced no such crises, carrying over most of their treaties (CPCN lost an MDP with Orion while by mutual agreement of the negotiators SE did not seek membership for The International in the Warsaw Pact). What took the most time was gaining the acceptence of twelve other alliances of The International's membership in the Orange Unity Treaty. It wasn't that they were reluctant, merely that there were twelve of them, and it took almost a month for the International to be accepted into OUT by the unanimous consent of OUT members.

A few minor issues like forum location (CPCN's forums were to be retained and renamed so as to save the admins some trouble) and the composition of the government (4 CPCN, 3 SE, 3 TRF) took up comparatively less time and much less worry. The Constitution was finally approved by membership votes.

All that remained was to set an announcement date, get a few people wearing The International as an alliance affiliation, get everyone masked on the forums, and announce. The announcement date was set for January 20, 2009, the pre-announcement NS target for The International was set at five hundred thousand, and an announcement was drawn up. However, there was one more surprise in store. On the first day of the pre-announcement transition, The International reached an NS of 604,076 and it kept rising. By the announcement date, The International had accumulated almost three million NS (2,984,873 NS, to be precise); almost all the members had switched over in the ten days of the transition period. The announcement was greeted warmly, but was locked as an anti-trolling precaution anyway.

I Central Committee

 * General Commissar: Seixas


 * General Secretary: Comrade Craig


 * Liaison Commissar: Sovyet Gelibolu


 * Liaison Secretary: Ivanfed


 * Martial Commissar: Q-collective


 * Martial Secretary: Fadejev


 * Treasury Commissar: FLOZi


 * Treasury Secretary: Ken Adams


 * Membership Commissar: Marcos


 * Membership Secretary: Araraya

Important Events
January 20: | International Resolution #1 is issued, declaring that "members of major leftist alliances on Planet Bob are have decided to found one alliance: The International," elucidating its Constitution, listing the members of its First Central Committee, and enumerating its treaties.

January 21: The International passes three million Alliance Nation Strength.

January 22: | There's Nothing More =Western= than Socialism, A Mutual Defense Pact with =Western Empire=, meant to be announced on January 20 but unconfirmed at that date, is confirmed and added to the treaty list. (The link actually takes you to the announcement of a treaty with the same name and almost the same text between =WE= and -SE-. Where you see -SE-'s name, acronym, or signature, insert INT's.)

January 24: | The Soyuz Compact, a Mutual Defense and Optional Aggression Pact with the Majestic Order of Orange Nations, is announced.

January 26: The International attains greater longevity that the International Communist Party (Reform)

January 28: | The Egalitarian Knights, an Optional Defense Pact with the Knights of Cydonia, is announced.

January 29: | The International Fisting Congress, a Mutual Defense and Optional Aggression Pact with Dark Fist, is announced.

February 7: The International passes twenty thousand Average Nation Strength.

February 8: The International passes thirteen Alliance Score.

February 9: Finnish Commie of Socialist Finland is elected to Orange Senate on behalf of INT, marking the first time a Leftist alliance has controlled a Senate seat since the Libertarian Socialist Federation lost its Pink Senate seat in October 2007, as well as becoming The International's first Senator. | Socialistic Insanity 2.0: International Insanity, a Mutual Defense and Optional Aggression Pact with the Random Insanity Alliance, is announced.

February 14: Crimson Brigade | merges into Another Alliance, bringing an end to The International's protectorate over it.

February 15: The International passes four hundred nuclear weapons.

February 19: | The Lol, Demo Accords, a Mutual Defense and Optional Aggression Pact with The Centurion Brotherhood is announced, superceding the Mutual Defense Pact that had existed since January 20, 2009.

February 26: | The Red Guard ( wiki) is founded in the Fourth Round of | Cybernations Tournament Edition so as to serve as The International's military training program.

February 27: The International attains greater longevity than the Second International Coalition of Socialist Nations. The Red Guard | attains sanctioned status and the #10 sanctioned spot in the | CN:TE sanction race.

February 28: The Red Guard | attains the #7 sanctioned spot in the CN:TE sanction race.

Summary
The membership of the First Central Committee was, as mentioned, crafted in essentials before it was elected. That’s not to say that the individual members were chosen in advance, but rather than the roles they would play were fleshed out before people were elected to fill them. Essentially, each alliance was given the opportunity to play to its strengths. The Righteous Fist, possessed of enormously capable leaders who had led a younger, more isolationist alliance than CPCN or SE, would take the positions of General Commissar, Treasury Secretary, and Martial Secretary. Socialistic Empire, whose leaders were experienced in emergencies and knew how to run a tight ship, would take Liaison Secretary, Martial Secretary, and Membership Secretary. Communist Party of Cybernations, whose strength had been Foreign Affairs and other such political maneuvering, and the economics necessary to sustain it, would take General Secretary, Liaison Commissar, Martial Commissar, and Treasury Commissar.

Not only did this accommodation lead to a Central Committee with a balanced and complimentary skill set, it proved instrumental in helping the alliance hold together during its first months. The seats were distributed roughly proportional to the populations that would be merging into The International, ensuring a fair scheme of representation which left every member with a familiar face in the government. That was the idea anyway; it wasn’t tested during the first month as most everyone settled comfortably in and the alliance remained at peace, un-subjected to external pressure.

The first twenty days of The International’s existence—that is, the remainder of January and the first ten days of February—were occupied mainly with the finding of its diplomatic footing. In the space of a week, The International signed four defense pacts, three of them Mutual, giving the membership feelings of security and of confidence in their government, keeping INT’s name on the first page of the Open World Forum, and showing other alliances that INT had staying power. Of course, diplomacy wasn’t the only avenue INT was pursuing. The recruitment of stragglers from CPCN and SE, as well as increased technology trading capacity caused by the new concentration of relatively tech-poor members led to The International attaining the milestone of three million nation strength within a day of its founding. Other milestones included the passage of twenty thousand Average Nation Strength, and the passage of thirteen Alliance Score, putting INT within measurable distance of the Sanction Race.

February 9 marked the watershed of The International’s first Central Committee. The major foreign affairs program was completed with the attainment of two long-pursued ends. The first marked The International’s entrance into the upper echelons of the Orange Sphere, at least in diplomatic terms. The Orange Defense Network, long a benefactor of CPCN and still harboring warm feelings for and an MDP with INT, approached Comrade Craig with an offer to back Finnish Commie of Socialist Finland for the February-March Orange Senate Term. The anticipation of this event had been one of the major reasons INT had stayed on Orange, and the offer was readily accepted (though Finnish Commie had to inflate his Nation Strength to qualify for election). The other, equally significant event on this date was the signature of a Mutual Defense and Optional Aggression Pact with the Random Insanity Alliance, with whom the International had grown close in the time between the twentieth and the ninth. This was INT’s first treaty (besides the MDPs with ODN and The Centurion Brotherhood, which had carried over from CPCN, and so don’t count) that it signed with an alliance of similar Nation Strength and score. These events, especially their occurrence in tandem, signified that The International had indeed moved to a higher plane of existence on Cybernations, and was fitting in well on that plane.

The last major foreign affairs event that took place during this time was the upgrade of INT’s MDP with TCB to an MDoAP on the nineteenth, a move recognized by both parties as long overdue (TCB upgraded its MDP with the International Protection Agency to MDoAP about about this time too). Indeed, the latter half of the First Central Committee was not notable for its foreign affairs coups. In part, this related to the diversion of the Liaison Commissariat’s resources to firefighting, as some of INT’s allies began experiencing convulsive internal issues or receiving pressing external threats at around this time. What also contributed were the more difficult to achieve goals that INT had set for its next round of foreign affairs accomplishments; these would be left to the Second Central Committee to decide. Rather, after having found its diplomatic footing, INT turned to internal affairs. In particular, it became a priority to militarize The International, to prepare its members physically and psychologically for war. The Cyberverse is a harsh place, and almost every other alliance that had led the Leftist movement on Bob had been destroyed by war; INT was determined not to become the next victim.

The first truly visible sign of INT’s acceptance that it must prepare for war was its acquisition of more than four hundred nuclear weapons, and the commitment that both members and the government showed to building ever more (as well as the supplementary technologies, including Strategic Defense Initiatives). By mid-February, INT had become competitive with its Nation Strength and Score peers in terms of nuclear weapons and the technologies required to maintain, enhance, and protect from, them. The other truly visible sign of INT’s commitment to preparedness was the growth of The Red Guard, an alliance founded in the Fourth Round of Cybernations Tournament Edition in order to be essentially a live-fire training exercise for INT members. The idea had been tossed around in CPCN before the merge, but it was TRF who had built an alliance in TE 3, and which contributed much of the knowledge, experience, and time that went into The Red Guard. TRG’s attainment of the seventh sanction spot in Tournament Edition was a sign of INT’s commitment: though many TRG members were not INT members (TRG expanded as much due to mass-PM recruitment ingame as due to recruitment from within INT), most of them were, and all of the government was.

The First Central Committee had guided The International from strength to strength, and would pass the reins to the Second Central Committee with pride.

II Central Committee

 * General Commissar: Sovyet Gelibolu


 * General Secretary: Comrade Craig


 * Liaison Commissar: Thizzland


 * Liaison Secretary: MutedFaith


 * Martial Commissar: Pirate Bob


 * Martial Secretary: Venizelos


 * Treasury Commissar: FLOZi


 * Treasury Secretary: Ken Adams


 * Membership Commissar: Seixas


 * Membership Secretary: Sir Pwnage

Important Events
March 1: | The International Resolution #2 announces the members of the Second Central Committee. The International passes three and a half million Nation Strength. The Red Guard | attains the #5 spot in the CN:TE sanction race.

March 2: The Red Guard | attains the #4 spot in the CN:TE sanction race.

March 4: Two Amendments to the Constitution of the International are made, one fixing an inconsistency in the manner of appointing Secretaries, the other mandating runoff elections should no candidate attain a simple majority.

March 6: The International passes 22,000 Average Nation Strength.

March 7: A third amendment to the Constitution is made, barring one person from running in multiple election. | The International Resolution #3 is announced, informing the Cyberverse of the Constitutional changes.

March 9: United Socialist Alliance | dissolves itself into The International.

March 18: The International passes 500 nuclear weapons.

March 30: | The International Killing Pact, an ODP between Fear none Kill all and The International, is announced.