[Submitted] Explosive Conflict

[Cretox State]

Draft 2: retooled to focus on precision weapons rather than conventional ones in response to feedback.

Explosive Conflict

Validity: High Defense Forces, high Scientific Advancement, allows computers, and no WMDs.

Description
During a recent state banquet in your honor, your Supreme General publicly unveiled a new precision missile technology that could potentially strike any seat of government from @@NAME@@ while bypassing all known defensive measures. While the crowd at the event was acceptably jovial, the news has ruffled some feathers abroad.

Option 1
"It's not that we don't trust you, @@LEADER@@," says Skandilundian Prime Minister Anders Anderson via an encrypted video call from an undisclosed location. "It's just that developing this technology defeats the purpose of foregoing weapons of mass destruction in the first place. Please, shut down all research into these and similar weapons. If you continue to build them, it could easily lead to a potentially catastrophic arms race. It's simply not a great idea."

Effect: the military's newest anti-tank rocket is a handheld grenade taped to a frisbee

Option 2
"I knew this was a great idea!" boasts Supreme General @@RANDOMNAME@@, accidentally knocking over a portrait of you while swaggering into your office. "These missiles will allow us to have the good PR of banning WMDs with none of the downsides to our national security. So what if we start an arms race? They're a lot less deadly than nukes, and it's not like I'm suggesting we'll ever actually have to use the things."

Effect: visitors often wonder about the new red dartboard in @@LEADER@@'s office

Option 3
"Never actually use them? What a waste that would be!" exclaims a voice from inside your desk, which sounds like it belongs to United Federation ambassador @@RANDOMNAME@@. "What you've got here, my friend, is an advanced payload delivery system that the Federation would pay handsomely for. Quietly, of course. We get to take our nuclear arsenal forward by years and you get some more food on your plate. Speaking of food, could you slip some into your 'extremely sensitive' drawer? I've been in here all day."

Effect: prospective government interns are asked to file the serial numbers off various weapons during interviews

[Cretox State]

Explosive Conflict

Validity: High Defense Forces, high Scientific Advancement, nd no WMDs.

Description
The @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ Ministry of Experimental Science has developed a new conventional warhead with a yield comparable to that of some tactical nuclear weapons. Interestingly, this technology does not appear to technically violate the nation's ban on weapons of mass destruction.

Option 1
"Well, it sure sounds like we can have our cake and eat it too," says your Minister of Defense, brushing some crumbs off a plate he's holding and onto the floor. "From what the eggheads told me, it sounds like the tech still has a lot of room to grow. I say we put more resources into exploring it to its full potential. We could have the PR of banning WMDs without the downsides to our arsenal. Sounds good, doesn't it?"

Effect: the military's recent combat reports have contained far more asterisks than usual

Option 2
"You can't just uphold the letter of the law while flouting its spirit!" protests one of your interns, whose uninvited foray into your office doesn't technically constitute trespassing. "This conventional weapon nonsense is clearly bad-faith exploitation of a loophole. The law needs to be fixed to account for weapons like these, and all research into similarly deadly weapons shut down!"

Effect: the military's newest anti-tank rocket is a handheld grenade taped to a frisbee

Validity: Allows computers.
Option 3
"Why are we even discussing crude, imprecise weapons in this day and age?" asks scientist @@RANDOMNAME@@, who appears to be commanding a rocket to perform donuts outside your office window with @@HIS@@ wristwatch. "Yes, other countries may have bombs capable of annihilating cities. But doesn't a stealth smart missile that can destroy any seat of government with no collateral damage after bypassing any defense system achieve the same- GET DOWN!"

Effect: visitors often wonder about the new red dartboard in @@LEADER@@'s office

[Daarwyrth]

I'm a little unsure about the scenario in the premise. I admit I am no expert on nuclear science or weapons for that matter, but wouldn’t the warhead have to be gargantuan with how many explosives it would have to pack to yield the same destructive power like nukes do? I'm left wondering whether that would be realistically possible, even with NationStates' crazy multiverse at times. From the way I see it, it wouldn’t be an effective or convenient way to use.

[Cretox State]

I'm a little unsure about the scenario in the premise. I admit I am no expert on nuclear science or weapons for that matter, but wouldn’t the warhead have to be gargantuan with how many explosives it would have to pack to yield the same destructive power like nukes do? I'm left wondering whether that would be realistically possible, even with NationStates' crazy multiverse at times. From the way I see it, it wouldn’t be an effective or convenient way to use.

I was going with "crazy multiverse," but maybe a conventional explosive weapon isn't the best plot device here. Would a satellite weapons platform or such work better? The premise only requires something that's effectively a WMD without actually running afoul of the nation's WMD policy.

[Daarwyrth]

I'm a little unsure about the scenario in the premise. I admit I am no expert on nuclear science or weapons for that matter, but wouldn’t the warhead have to be gargantuan with how many explosives it would have to pack to yield the same destructive power like nukes do? I'm left wondering whether that would be realistically possible, even with NationStates' crazy multiverse at times. From the way I see it, it wouldn’t be an effective or convenient way to use.

I was going with "crazy multiverse," but maybe a conventional explosive weapon isn't the best plot device here. Would a satellite weapons platform or such work better? The premise only requires something that's effectively a WMD without actually running afoul of the nation's WMD policy.

Well, if you look at the definition of 'weapon of mass destruction' as Wikipedia gives it: A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous humans or cause great damage to human-made structures (e.g., buildings), natural structures (e.g., mountains), or the biosphere.

So, it would have to be something truly inconspicuous, that's not meant as a weapon, and yet has unimaginable destructive potential. Because a WMD isn't just nuclear weapons, it's any form of weapon that has mass destruction as an effect. Unless NationStates uses a different meaning for WMD, of course, because I am basing what I say now off of how Wikipedia classifies WMD.

[Cretox State]

able destructive potential. Because a WMD isn't just nuclear weapons, it's any form of weapon that has mass destruction as an effect. Unless NationStates uses a different meaning for WMD, of course, because I am basing what I say now off of how Wikipedia classifies WMD.

I could retool the draft around the precision weapons in option 3.

[Daarwyrth]

able destructive potential. Because a WMD isn't just nuclear weapons, it's any form of weapon that has mass destruction as an effect. Unless NationStates uses a different meaning for WMD, of course, because I am basing what I say now off of how Wikipedia classifies WMD.

I could retool the draft around the precision weapons in option 3.

Perhaps that might work, yeah, but definitely wait to see if others say the same!

[Quartia and Karafuto]

You can't just uphold the letter of the law while flaunting its spirit

I don't think "flaunt" is the right word here. "Flaunt" means to show off something, so flaunting the law would be following it while making a big deal of the fact that you are doing so. "Flout" might be the word you're looking for.

[Cretox State]

You can't just uphold the letter of the law while flaunting its spirit

I don't think "flaunt" is the right word here. "Flaunt" means to show off something, so flaunting the law would be following it while making a big deal of the fact that you are doing so. "Flout" might be the word you're looking for.

Fixed.

[Trotterdam]

Yeah, packing enough conventional explosives to simulate a small nuke is technically possible (the MOAB is large enough to create a mushroom cloud, which might fool poorly-informed witnesses into thinking a nuke had been used), but it's going to be a lot heavier and more cumbersome to use. Any conventional bomb capable of simulating a true city-destroying nuke, rather than a really small tactical nuke, is going to be so huge that you'd have trouble lugging it toward the target before the enemy notices what you're doing and stops you.

Satellite weapons don't strike me as much more viable, though the fact that they haven't been developed yet makes it harder to say anything about them for sure. Yes, an object falling on you from hundreds of kilometers up will hurt a lot even without an explosive warhead, but getting that object to fall on the target is harder than it looks. Once things are in orbit, they tend to want to stay in orbit and it takes quite a lot of energy to de-orbit them. De-orbiting an impactor large enough to function as a weapon of mass destruction would likely require enough energy that your propulsion system already qualifies as a weapon of mass destruction on its own, meaning you might as well have just skipped the whole "sending it into space first" step.

Worth noting is that a big part of the problem with nukes isn't just the size of the explosion, but that they leave harmful radioactive fallout lying around for a long time afterwards. Therefore, there is a rational argument to be made that a different type of weapon which somehow deals a comparable amount of damage without causing radioactive fallout should be okay to use.

[Friberia]

I personally loved the "grenade attached to a frisbee" part

[Fauxia]

Good issue Cretox.

I will always be a little bit disappointed when an issue about missiles comes up without Dr. Strangelove references, but that is probably just me

[Australian rePublic]

A big difference between this weapon and a nuke is that a nuke would have radiation for millennia after it's dropped, whilst this weapon wouldn't. That's an important factor to consider in this issue

[Cretox State]

Draft 2; reworked the issue. I may submit this to the contest.

[Cretox State]

Submitted... obviously not to the contest.