History of the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization

The history of the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization, the oldest alliance in Cybernations history is closely intertwined with the history of the game itself. Note that some of the history is distorted by loss of records during the deletion of the first GATO forums and the inaccessability of the old set of Cybernations forums.

When cybernations started, its third registered player, Depraved, founded an alliance that was called the Cross Atlantic Treaty Organization. CATO's name was to be short-lived; within a week it was renamed GATO, the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization. The first AC was depraved who held the position twice in a row. The MoD was TJ Booth. Levh7 would hold the office of MoFA for an unprecedented 5 times. The MoDA was Jormungand. He, however, would not be elected to this position until after World War I.

It all started with the INC. They were a loose alliance of roughly 50 members, at that time the biggest. GATO was weaker and smaller. The two alliances were very uncivil and eventually there was War. Old' Freedonia took a hard bashing from Ninja but Depraved stuck it to Chris Miller, the INC Vice President.

Nobody won the war. Chris Miller asked a ceasefire. The next day, Jormungand left for GATO along with other members. GATO for awhile became the sole hyper power. This was short-lived however. From the darkness, leapt the New Pacific Order.

Around the end of the INC-GATO war, Cybernations was discovered by a massive simulator game called NationStates. People flocked over in droves. Karpathos founded the New Pacific Order on the Red Team headed by a controversial Ivan Moldavi. The NPO was close friends with GATO, signing the Dove Doctrine, an NAP, and the Unity Covenant, an MDP. GATO fell from its supreme power into second place.

In order to combat the rising power of the New Pacific Order, LUE, ODN, GGA, and UCS formed the Independence Council. It however began to fall apart when all alliances were invited to join it. However, before it died, something called the Entente Cordiale was to be created by GATO, Legion, and NAAC. It was vetoed by the AC Jormungand due to the wording if any EC member went to war; it HAD to back up its fellow. Legion voted it down. IC dissolved as a failure soon after. However, it was the first sign of major opposition to the NPO.

GATO fought a couple small wars after WWI, the Chessania Campaign, FrUCK War, and the UN War. However, a bigger war would soon erupt over the blue team. It was discovered the NAAC had a spy in the NPO. NPO declared war and began to attack every NAAC nation. It was soon discovered a spy was in GATO as well so GATO joined the war. Legion joined the NPO due to the Imperial Accords. NAAC was crushed down to less then 50 members yet would rebound amazingly quickly.

After Emperor Ivan announced the creation of a New Polar Order, the new AC Vercingetorix gave a speech opening his term criticizing NPO formation of the Blue Alliance the New Polar Order. GATO-NPO relations began to erode. The pinnacle was reached in June with the GARO incident.

Grenval, always a bit of a prankster himself, made a post announcing the Global Alliance Red Organization. The NPO was insanely outraged and suspended the unity covenant. Also, Grenval was forced to resign as MoDA. Grenval was soon back writing Cox News Articles, known for the hilarity and parody of the NPO.

After the brief foot note of the WSA War, which had the largest use of nukes ever, one poke set the whole house of cards tumbling. Yaridovich, ex-LUE co leader, posted a LUEicide. NpO Emperor Tygaland was livid and nuked LUE member duffman04. NPO declared war to back up the NpO. IGC followed. GATO intended to repeal the MDP with LUE but the pre-emptive nuking hadn't given them time. GATO declared war on NPO followed by a flurry of other alliances.

The war was furious. Dasgirl shot off 5 nukes, hitting Vladimir the first day at 11:59:50, literally seconds before update. Yuuzhan Tar took 5 nukes for GATO and plummeted in strength horribly. The lower GATO echelons crushed the NPO forces, yet their highest ranked nations suffered extreme losses. More alliances joined, making an NPO defeat seem inevitable. But then, there was the coven scandal.

Nosdondekistan, EvilCartyen, and Yoda turned out to be spies for an information gathering group called Coven of the Lost. Nosey was a NPO Alliance Councilman. EC was Legion Director of Intelligence. And Yoda, was the Assembly Chairman of GATO. A 24 ceasefire was called immediately to allow team to regroup from the shock. Just afterward, EC gave the Legion logs proving the NPO intend to knock off Legion for not coming to their rescue. Legion joined the war and bashed NPO down hard. Legion was now #1.

Minister of Defense Chris_Kaos took up the AC job in full vigor and returned to the war effort. Chris was the CoaLUEtion's official negotiator and was primarily the man who set down peace terms. As the war wore on, will to fight was sapped in both sides. Ivan Moldavi admitted the Orders had acted rashly and had been defeated for it. The war was over.

During and after the war, GATO established MDP's with its CoaLUEtion partners, NAAC, CDS, and Legion. August was a month of intense rebuilding under Chairman Chris_Kaos, with vigorous diplomatic moves being made by him and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jacksonians (the pirate c'ptain. ARRR!).

During this same time however, some of the internal conflicts of the alliance begun surfacing. Fueled by a lack of organization during the war and the rogue conflicts that followed, the military grew to a state of unrest. At the same time, Chairman Chris_Kaos and former Minister of Domestic Affairs Letum begun being at loggerheads.

As tensions grew and elections neared, Chairman Chris_Kaos brought Letum to court on charges of treason and attempting to overthrow the Global Alliance government via an alleged plot involving the mass use of nuclear weaponry. However, it was soon apparent that the evidence presented was highly circumstancial and Chairman Chris_Kaos dropped the charges, apologizing for the accusations. Whilst the Court Case was ongoing, Letum was elected as Assembly Chairman by the General Assembly.

The next two months saw Letum being re-elected to the position of Chairman, as well as significant improvements to the state of the Global Alliance's Military Forces, making it one of the most, if not the most, powerfull armies in the world. At the same time the Immigration and Financial systems underwent rehauls that greatly benefited the alliance.

At the same time however, conflicts within the Leadership of the Alliance begun to rise, and relations with the NPO, NpO and GOONS begun to deteriorate.

The conflict begun when GATO's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Grenval, made a statement in the GATO's embassy with the NPO concerning espionage conducted against the Order by a third party. However, his reception was anything but polite, and after being repeatedly insulted by NPO members and the emperor of the NpO, Grenval made a statement that GATO maintained a secret policy of not recognizing the NpO. In the ensuing firestorm, the already developing conflicts between factions in GATO exploded, resulting in the resignations of Minister of Foreign Affairs Grenval for his comments against NpO, and of Chairman Letum for his recognition of NpO without prior agreement by the General Assembly.

Following Letum's resignation, Minister of Defence Beryl succeeded as Chairman. During his short tenure as Chairman, he attempted to calm down tensions, and oversaw the debates as well as the vote regarding recognition of the NpO. However, Beryl unexpectedly resigned from his position and from the alliance, and Letum, who had been appointed as Minister of Defence succeeded him and regained the position of Chairman.

With some moves to calm internal conflict being made, the Global Alliance government begun to reach an tentative agreement to recognize the Polar Order. At this time, an Ultimatum by the New Polar Order was made, demanding GATO answer within 24 hours "or else." GATO's government as a whole decided to ignore this ultimatum, and talks of severing all diplomatic ties with the Polar Order begun to surface. When the Ultimatum Deadline passed, the NpO made a statement revoking recognition of GATO (instead claiming they are a colony of LUE) and cutting off diplomatic ties, followed by statements from the NPO and GOONS, also cutting off ties. During this chaos, Chairman Letum, and Deputy Chairman Chris_Kaos made an announcement in which GATO condemned the insulting behavior of the NpO's emperor and recognized the NpO as a sovereign political alliance, but not a military one. In other words, they would act independently of the NPO on political matters, but would tag along on military ones. The announcement also destroyed the embassies of the GOONS, NPO and NpO, relegating them to a status of "No Diplomatic Relations."

It appeared that the situation had been resolved, when a new crisis rose: Depraved, founder of GATO, returned to the alliance and distraught with the government and the concentration of power, decided to launch a coup, using his powers as founder of the forums. However, GATO rose against this coup, and soon moved to new forums created by Letum. Whilst Depraved had support from the NPO, NpO and GOONS, he had little support from within GATO, and even less support from GATO's allies, which rushed to the side of the Letum administration. He soon admitted defeat, deleted the forums after finding out that Chris_Kaos had been working as a "double agent" for the Letum government, and fled to the GOONS.

GATO launched into a furious process of rebuilding, managing to successfully hold elections with a record turnout within 24 hours of the Coup. The sunsequent month saw Octavian being elected to the position of Chairman, and efforts made from all sides to reduce the level of conflict within GATO, until it stopped being an issue. November saw a number of programs made to improve GATO, the most important of which was a series of large Aid Chains, which significantly boosted the average strength of the alliance.

However, peace was not meant to be.

After a small political issue where a Nordreich recruitment video on youtube made frontline news in Norway, there was a massive influx of new players coming from the FARK forums, and they formed the FARKISTAN alliance. FARK had a longstanding rivalry with the members of the Something Awful forums, who make up the large body of GOONS. When Farkistan appeared in CN, GOONS immediately engaged in reasonable peace talks, asking for a general permanent Non-agression Pact. These rather reasonable requests were, however, thrown back at GOONS, and Farkistan was made a protectorate of LUEnited Nations. GOONS, as well as its allies, declared war against Farkistan for being a future threat to The Initiative. In response to this, LUE issued a declaration of war on GOONS and her allies, and activated their multiple MADP's, bringing GATO into what became the Second Global War. However, GATO's involvement in this war was short-lived, lasting less than one week, and in that week they experienced massive casualties, while inflicting very little on their enemies. Indeed, it is from this event, among others occuring throughout GW2 that caused the Initiative to nickname GATO as being 'Worst Alliance Ever'. The actual date at which GATO resigned from the war is disputed, as there were several surrender statements that were alternately said to be either official or unofficial, the first one being stated by the then Minister of Foreign Affiars, BenPG. After several disputes over the legitimacy of these surrenders, it was finally determined that GATO had indeed surrendered, and the League, a super-alliance formed to combat the Initiative, soon crumbled after, and both LUE and Farkistan were left to fight the Initiative on their own. After the war, GATO underwent chaos, as practically every single elected government official was either in the process of resigning or in court for impeachment. Letum, the then chairman of the alliance, expressed a desire to resign 48 hours after the conclusion of GATO's involvement in the war, but eventually stuck through to the end of his term, supervising rebuilding operations, before leaving in February for the New Pacific Order. In the next election, Vincent Xander, who inherited the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs after the war, became the next Assembly Chairman. It was to be a new age for GATO, with new thoughts, revolutionary ideas, Vincent Xander was hailed as being 'the Greatest AC GATO has ever had'.

One month after the Second Global War, private conversations were leaked between Vincent Xander and a leader of the Legion. These conversations featured Vincent Xander attempting to gain political solidarity on GATO's side of the MDP web. The Initiative seized the oppurtonity to declare war, claiming that Vincent Xander was attempting to gain a military coalition against the Initiative, and the rest of the MADP bloc followed, in what would become the Third Great War.

After GATO's entry into the Third Great War, several alliances joined GATO in their fight, including the Legion, NAAC, the Sphere alliance block, and several smaller alliances. This loose coalition became known as "Aegis", and opposed the Initiative during the Third Great War.

GATO fought largely against the combined forces of the GGA and the NPO, with NPO forces largely sitting out the war, and waiting in reserve. NPO forces moved in to reinforce GGA and other Initiative forces when fights turned against them, and provided aid to fund the war effort.

Eventually, negotiations with New Pacific Order leadership led to the release of a reasonable set of peace terms, which were accepted by then-AC Kevlar.

The Global Alliance and Treaty Organization surrendered to the Initiative on April 10th, 2007, ending their involvement in the Third Great War. The terms included the payment of $350 million in reparations, the permanent removal of Chris_Kaos and Walford from political offices or administrative positions, and the recognition of the NPO as superior cowards, backstabbers and schemers.

In addition, GATO was required to dismantle all military installations and equipment except for tanks and troops for the a two month period. In order to prevent oppurtounistic attacks, GATO was also put under direct NPO protection for the two-month period. A protection that did not exist, and for two long months GATO suffered from repeated raids and attacks.

After the war, an exodus of members left GATO with only the most loyal followers remaining, a core of approximately 400 members. With this new membership came a spirit of solidarity in the alliance not seen since before the Second Great War. A new government was elected that represented the new face of GATO, with Your Daddy becoming the new Minister of Finance, jsims8 becoming the new Assembly Chairman, Raistlin becoming the new Minister of Domestic Affairs, BarburaM1 became the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gonzoczar became the new Minister of Defense, and the alliance's Congress featured several members new to GATO politics as well.

With a new, determined membership and leadership, GATO has moved to reclaim its lost mask, and to regain its former standing as a great alliance in Cybernations.

The recent The Unjust War has provided an opportunity for GATO. GATO was neutral in the beginning and many sanctioned alliances were expected to lose much National Strength during the conflict. GATO, had PIATs with -AiD- and NTO and declared war on FOK in assistance of the two alliances. GATO claimed it was a 'side war' and not part of the larger conflict. On September 15th, after -AiD- surrendered to FOK!, GATO and FOK! negotiated a ceasefire, due to one of its reasons for joining were now out of it.

GATO's hopes of once again being Sanctioned due to the NS loss of many alliance came true on the Third of October 07, when they, along with Sparta and CSN gained Sanctioned status, with the now defunct GOONS, GOLD and \m/ loosing theirs.

As of April 24, 2008, all of GATO's members were ordered into DEFCON 1 following the leakage of information about something that broke the treaty pact of the GW3.

Three days later the power bloc One Vision (referred to by many on the other side as "No Vision") declared war upon GATO, with following cassus belli.

As far as this author is aware, the main reason that the war began on April 27 is that a certain member "Chris_Kaos" (who was not allowed to participate in government action because of GATO's terms of surrender after Great War 3) once again joined the GATO government under a fake name. Here is the story according to one GATOan:

<"So around August of '07, Chris_Kaos created a new nation, under the alias 'Alexander_Gladius.' He joined GATO, using an anonymous proxy server in order to hide his true identity from the government. GATO was unaware of this, and during his near 4 and a half months in GATO, only made it into the Congress. He did nothing of interest nor anything of substance, and was able to disguise himself successfully from the eyes of the admins. He also disguised his posting style, giving GATO no reason to suspect him to be C_K. He eventually let his nation die and quit Cybernations in November of '07. Early in '08, he logged onto IRC and connected to the GATO public channel, #gato. He then queried a certain member, BarbulaM1 (this is questionable though, in the author's mind.), and told the story of how he re-created his nation under a new name and snuck into GATO. BarbulaM1 kept this very vital information to himself, which some have said ultimately led to the outbreak of this ridiculous war. This information was unfortunately leaked to NPO, who used as the cb for this war.

Currently, the NPO, NpO, GGA, TPF, and the rest of the alliances associated with the NPO and NpO are waging war on GATO, the IAA, Browncoats (who have already surrendered), and the CSN. Most GATO members are refering to this war as the Second Unjust war or the Fifth Great War.