Proposal: WA Outer Space Treaty

[United American Regions]

Global Disarmament, “significant” strength

Believing outer space should be a region used primarily for scientific, commercial, and other peaceful purposes, and for the advancement of humanity,

The World Assembly requires its members to:

1. Define, for the purposes of interpreting this treaty:
- “outer space” as all regions 62 miles above sea level
- “weapon of mass destruction (WMD)” to be a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans or cause great damage to human-made structures, natural structures, or the biosphere

2. Dismantle or bring to ground all satellites, spacecraft, or any other active carrier of WMDs currently in outer space

3. Immediately and permanently end deployment of WMDs to outer space

4. Ensure non-governmental entities within a nation follow the regulations of the above sections

5. Engage in all possible dialogue before resorting to the usage of conventional weaponry in outer space

6. Encourage the peaceful exploration and development of outer space when not at war

7. A Commission for the Prohibition of Spaceborne Weapons of Mass Destruction (CPSWMD) shall be created to ensure compliance. All member nations must allow free access to CPSWMD inspectors on an annual basis to ensure compliance.



What do you all think? Personally, I’m thinking of removing the last section, if that’s too intrusive

[Kenmoria]

“What is the category and strength of this proposal? They should be put on the draft somewhere so other ambassadors can comment. Also, clause 3 and 5 seem to self-contradict, as one says that nuclear weapons may never be used, whereas the other allows nuclear weapons to be used if all possibly means of dialogue have first been utilised.

Finally, it is odd that your ‘hereby’ line states that member states are bound to the mandates below, and that one of these mandates is the creation of a committee, which member states cannot do. Only the WA, not WA countries, can create a committee.”

(OOC: This has been edited to add that you appear to have submitted the proposal without garnering any feedback on it. I would recommend not doing that, as there is no point in submitting a draft to these forums if you don’t wait for any constructive criticism first.)

[Lost Brotherhood]

Should this resolution come to vote, the Lunar Republic will have to oppose on principle. We believe that there is a vast amount of knowledge to be gained by studying the even greater vastness of space, and that it is not only our right, but our duty to strive for an understanding of the universe we exist in. We conduct regular launches for the purpose of space exploration, and have sunk far too many Bits into the construction of our instruments of science to turn back now.

[United American Regions]

“What is the category and strength of this proposal? They should be put on the draft somewhere so other ambassadors can comment. Also, clause 3 and 5 seem to self-contradict, as one says that nuclear weapons may never be used, whereas the other allows nuclear weapons to be used if all possibly means of dialogue have first been utilised.

Finally, it is odd that your ‘hereby’ line states that member states are bound to the mandates below, and that one of these mandates is the creation of a committee, which membe states cannot do. Only the WA, not WA countries, can create a committee.”

(OOC: This has been edited to add that you appear to have submitted the proposal without garnering any feedback on it. I would recommend not doing that, as there is no point in submitting a draft to these forums if you don’t wait for any constructive criticism first.)

Category is Global Disarmament, and I put significant for strength.

Clause 5 states to engage in all possible diplomacy before resorting to the usage of conventional weapons, eg guns, ordinary missiles, etc. It doesn’t provide for the usage of WMDs. Maybe defining conventional weapons as well would help?

And yes, I’ve been thinking of removing the committee clause, as it doesn’t fit well into the rest of the proposal. I’m not sure if compliance inspections would be necessary anyways, since you can’t really hide nukes in space.

[United American Regions]

Should this resolution come to vote, the Lunar Republic will have to oppose on principle. We believe that there is a vast amount of knowledge to be gained by studying the even greater vastness of space, and that it is not only our right, but our duty to strive for an understanding of the universe we exist in. We conduct regular launches for the purpose of space exploration, and have sunk far too many Bits into the construction of our instruments of science to turn back now.

There’s nothing in the proposal that restricts space exploration, it actually encourages it. It only bans the launching of WMDs to space, not launches in general.

[United Republic of North American States]

The United Republic of North American States strongly opposes this legislation on the basis that each country should have control over its own destiny. And if it comes to it The United Republic of North American States is willing to use WMD's and conventional weapons to prevent international oversight

[Saralonia]

interesting very interesting maybe this would be more specific of what happens if you have nukes in the space and get caught what's the punishment by the WA?

[Kenmoria]

interesting very interesting maybe this would be more specific of what happens if you have nukes in the space and get caught what's the punishment by the WA?

(OOC: If you are going to go down that route, which I advise against, make sure you don’t fall afoul of the metagaming rule by demanding things such as resignation from the WA. It is best to just allow the Administrative Compliance Act to deal with noncompliance, which it does through fines.)

[Dirty Americans]

I'm going to ignore the many nations (well for this post anyway, as a member of the Tzorsland Puppet Federation I could easily be stripped of WA status if I annoyed the "Imperious Leader") and just concentrate on the basic points and arguments that represent the problems of "space" to any interplanetary technological society.

You need a lot of energy or distribution to have an effective WMD in a technology confined to a gravitational well. Outside of that gravitational well almost anything can be a potential WMD; a large asteroid or meteor is a good example of a simple thing that can wipe out whole civilizations. Anyone hear of Sodom and Gomorrah?

December 11, 2018 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group of archeologists and other scientists say they have discovered strong evidence that the region of the “Middle Ghor,” where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are believed to have existed, were in fact destroyed by a meteor that exploded in the sky above, raining down superheated matter and raising temperatures to thousands of degrees, a theory that matches the account of the cities’ destruction contained in the Old Testament Book of Genesis.

Now let's take the other side of the coin. The weapons of mass destruction for a technology that is confined to a gravitational well tend to be under powered for the energy requirements of even advanced interplanetary travel, never mind breaking the limits to allow for reason.

An outer space treaty as you have written here is good only for a pre-interplanetary civilization currently in the process of inventing weapons of mass destruction and then mostly because of the inability to ensure detection of such weapons in various areas of space. It is wholly inadequate for any other technology level and as such really doesn't apply to the WA as a whole since it effectively bans advanced space faring technology.

[Borovan entered the region as he]

How do you even nuke in outer space? Use galactic lasers and bombs? Anyway Against the international galactic federation needs it for peacekeeping efforts against terrorism

[Awesome Dudes and Dudettes]

[OOC: Seems nice, probably should define conventional weapons since Kenmoria thought it meant WMDs. I would also recommend changing the last clause from "creating" to "recommending that the WA creates"]

[Wrapper]

[OOC: Seems nice, probably should define conventional weapons since Kenmoria thought it meant WMDs. I would also recommend changing the last clause from "creating" to "recommending that the WA creates"]

That’s not very good advice. Recommending the creation of a committee does nothing.

[Araraukar]

1. Define, for the purposes of interpreting this treaty:
- “outer space” as all regions 62 miles above sea level

*snip*

3. Immediately and permanently end deployment of WMDs to outer space

OOC: That height would mean including ICBMs with nuclear warheads into your ban list, which I would personally support, but which you'll have a hard time getting past the more warlike nations (which seem to be the majority of WA nations, when it comes to nukes).

[Merni]

OOC: This has been submitted.

[Bears Armed]

viewtopic.php?p=35059687#p35059687

UAR, are you and Snoburg the same player or did whichever of you came up with the "62 miles above sea-level" threshold first give the other permission to use it as well? Or is one of you plagiarizing the other?

[Araraukar]

UAR, are you and Snoburg the same player or did whichever of you came up with the "62 miles above sea-level" threshold first give the other permission to use it as well? Or is one of you plagiarizing the other?

OOC: Actually, you can blame Wikipedia.

[Bears Armed]

UAR, are you and Snoburg the same player or did whichever of you came up with the "62 miles above sea-level" threshold first give the other permission to use it as well? Or is one of you plagiarizing the other?

OOC: Actually, you can blame Wikipedia.

OOC: Okay. I drop that part of my objection. The fact remains, though, that using this threshold seems to assume that every nation shares the same "sea level"...

[Scerallia]

The United Republic of North American States strongly opposes this legislation on the basis that each country should have control over its own destiny. And if it comes to it The United Republic of North American States is willing to use WMD's and conventional weapons to prevent international oversight

You know what, I feel exactly the same way.