The Diplomatic Lodge

Political and Legal Status
The Diplomatic Lodge is officially recognized by The Philosophy House as the "corporate entity" of their Foreign Relations Office.

The Philosophy House does not see itself as the founder of an alliance, or the leader of an association in their ownership of the Lodge. However, their government's exclusive right to assert their ownership of the Diplomatic Lodge is enshrined within their Constitution, claiming it to be an extension of their Foreign Relations Office.

The Duty of the Host
The Diplomatic Lodge is the office which provides foreign aid to the allies of Host The Philosophy House. It solely belongs to, and is run, maintained and sponsored by The Philosophy House government. Officially its agenda in doing such is to bring all nations with governments interested in nurturing philosophy talents amongst its people under a common umbrella.

Members of the Lodge become "protectorates" of Host The Philosophy House. However, this "protectorate" status is at best an imprecise description of the relation between the Lodge Resident/Guest and the Host. The member of the Lodge will always retain total control of its independence and has absolute control over its financial and military assets. The member hence is an independent sovereign, and can be considered to be no different from which otherwise non-membership would have on its rights.

However, the key difference is that now the member will be a diplomatic ally of the Host, and the Host shall be obliged to secure financial and military aid, as required and is allowable, to unconditionally defend and to maintain the freedom of the member nation, as well as to encourage it's pursuit of policies targeted to raise interest in philosophy among its people.

Any attack on The Philosophy House by an aggressor, or any of the members of the Lodge, shall be isolated and diplomatically contained, being that the Lodge as a whole has no duty to absolutely rise to defend either the Host or a fellow member in war. The Host shall not force any member to rise to defend another, with the charge that to reject would be to commit treason against the Lodge. Exceptions to this is when a Lodge member has had a registered Alliance with another, recognized by the Host. The Host may lobby Lodge members for aid, but is again non-binding.

The Lodge On Foreign Relations
Members of the Lodge can claim only a priori in-title friendly relations between each another as fellow members. It should however be reminded that the Lodge is an extension of The Philosophy House and is independent of its foreign relations status and alliances. The only formalized and official relation that can be formulated in the Lodge is between the Host and the individual member. Between the members, there is no provision in the Lodge that guarantees inter-member alliances as it is.

Member nations will need to establish friendship by their own diplomatic channels for formal relations to occur, for both with other Lodge members and also non-Lodge nation. The Host has no say over foreign relations of its Lodge members, just as it cannot interfere in their practise of sovereignty. However, since a nation cannot declare a second Alliance if The Diplomatic Lodge is already the main affiliation, to properly register the relations status of a Lodge member with another, members are advised to establish their relations with the Host playing the mediator.

For relations outside the Lodge, members need not register through the Host. The member of the Lodge at any instant will always retain its total say in its foreign relations with any party. Member nations will not be asked to commit to the Lodge any military or financial tribute or payment (which otherwise would cause it to become a vassal), though at any time, the Host may reserve the right to lobby all the members to help out with another member's troubles. It should be noted that it is done out of favour if so, and the member-in-question must request it, for otherwise the Host will not provide additional aid beyond its current levels, deeming it to be sufficient. The member does reserve the right to lobby for itself both within and outside the Lodge, but to use the diplomatic facilities of the Host in the latter's name would require the Host's own approval, and is to be used only within the Lodge.

Entrance Requirements
The Lodge is a closed, "unconventional Alliance". There are two classes of membership, the Lodge Resident and the Lodge Guest. Generally, acting as the Host of the Diplomatic Lodge, The Philosophy House retains complete rights to accept members into the Lodge, though sometimes it may seek confirmation from its Lodge Residents.

In line with The Philosophical House's official stance on the "advancement of philosophical thought and intellectual enlightenment", final entry as a Lodge Resident requires a nation's government to preferably proclaim a genuine interest to sculpt philosophers out of their population, and thinkers out of their young. New entrants rarely become Lodge Residents upon entrance, but must instead serve probation as Guests.

Temporary members who have limited interest in pursuing such goals, or new entrants who are under probation to become Lodge Residents who are approved for membership are mostly put as Lodge Guests.

The Lodge is fairly-exclusive to entrance, mainly because of the generous support the Host provides to members without strings attached. To protect the quality of membership, quantity thus needs to be restricted.

Membership Classes and Entitlement
The Lodge Host (The Philosophy House) occupies a permanent, fixed slot as the administrative, financial and military contact of the Lodge. The Host represents the Lodge in whole when speaking of financial and military aid. For members, there are two classes of membership.

The Lodge Residents are members who have allowed the Host to assist them in the capacity of the conventional "Protectorate", though Residents keep their independence and influence without any Host interference. Residents are no different from independent nations, except that they are entitled to receive Lodge support. Residents have also declared their alignment, or "Residence" in the Lodge by stating it via their "Alliance Affilation". Residents are therefore the permanent members of the Lodge who will be protected and supported by The Philosophy House unconditionally.

The Lodge Guests are new entrants to the Lodge who usually have a probation period where they remain as Guests, before they are officially invited or allowed to become full Residents. Guest membership is advised for those who wish to lean towards The Philosophy House temporarily or for lack of a better ally, and wish to see how Lodge membership is like. The Host will commit to the Guest the level of financial support it gives too to Residents, but will not guarantee military help as it is - the Guest must request for it from the Host when it is required, and is subject to the Host's approval. Guests are also allowed to not explicitly declare their alignment with the Lodge, and instead declare alignment with another Alliance.

Non-Alliance Structure
The structure of the Lodge is not one of an Alliance. An Alliance establishes equal and symmetrical diplomatic relations within and outside itself with all of its members, by virtue of their own structural laws and rules. However, the Lodge is a structure that guarantees every member's right to independence to both domestic and foreign issues, without any capacity to cause equal relations and actions between all in the Lodge against another party. The Lodge is therefore not an Alliance.

The implication of this is that the Lodge cannot be implicated as a whole for any war-related purposes. Even diplomatically, this is not possible. One cannot wage war with the Lodge technically, but can only do so with its members. The Host of the Lodge will take defensive responsibility for any attack directed at the Lodge, and will render its members non-responsible for the war. The Host will therefore take charge of any issue directed at the entity of The Diplomatic Lodge.

Dissolution and Disalignment
The Diplomatic Lodge, as an extension of the Foreign Relations Office of The Philosophy House, is an active diplomatic entity for as long as The Philosophy House endures. The Host cannot technically leave the Lodge. To do so would be to firstly dissolve the Lodge, secondly give up its capacity to diplomacy and war, thirdly stop its assertion and guarantee of its sovereignty, and finally to end the nation itself. Hence, the Lodge is active as long as the House is independent.

Any Resident or Guest can reserve its right to leave the Lodge at any time. There is no diplomatic penalty for doing so. Leaving would only lower a nation's diplomatic status to the Host from an "Ally" to a "Neutral". The nation loses all its rights as guaranteed previously be the Lodge, and cannot use any of the Lodge's facilities for itself. At any time, the nation-in-question can rejoin the Lodge, but would need to start its entry process all over again - as a new appeal would be subject to approval and probation.

Press Releases and History
On 11/21/2007, The Philosophy House Foreign Relations Office declared the setting-up of The Diplomatic Lodge and decided on its aims and operation procedures. Careful to avoid having it evolve into an ineffective bureaucracy, the Office settled on having its authority centralized on the local government, disagreeing with the theories of traditional Alliance structures and instead agreeing on the untested, "thought-in-Foucault" Lodge structure, the Diplomatic Lodge would allow members of the Lodge to retain their sovereignty and full decision-making powers while guaranteeing their growth as a Lodge. The democratic government of The Philosophy House is now awaiting for the next Parliament to approve funding for this very-costly, but extremely-beneficial project.