Presenting to the American People: Fortis

Day 594, 19:50 • Published in USA USA • by ProggyPop

Fortis; Latin word for strong or brave.

There’s been a lot of discussion about Fortis among Congress and the citizenry at large. As one of the central individuals responsible for its creation, I feel it’s necessary to reach out to the public at-large and explain the 5 w’s about Fortis.

Most importantly, here is a link to our charter: [url] http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcz6tm4_9dpzjjndh [/url]

Who

Fortis is an alliance made up five central countries: USA, Spain, UK, Canada, and Ireland. While not all countries have yet approved the charter, all of them will take votes in their Congressional bodies soon. The US recently approved the Fortis charter overwhelming, with no votes in the negative (a handful of Representatives abstained).

It is certainly possible that Fortis will have more members in the future, but this core of five were the main core necessary to ensure our collective safety and coordination. We are also closest with these five countries compared to almost every other country in the world. Finally, we did not want to conflict with any of the allied affairs of our friends in EDEN, our Eastern-European colleagues and friends.

What

Fortis is a defensive alliance founded to increase its member nations collective security and cooperative partnerships. The alliance consists of a “Security Council” with equal voting among all members, an elected Secretary-General to lead the Council, and a variety of other bureaucratic affairs. The personnel team of the alliance intends to increase dialog and partnership among the member nations. Of the utmost important to the alliance is our collective security. Fortis will do whatever is necessary to keep American and alliance interests safe and secure.

In other words, Fortis will succeed where other alliances have failed with greater coordination and more trust among friends. We will avoid the pitfalls of protectorates, war penalties, and petty politics. We will empower strong leadership to keep us focused while not impeding on the rights of any sovereign nations. Fortis is a balancing act, but one created by like-minded countries with a central purpose.

Where

Obviously the regional focus of Fortis is in the North Atlantic area. Nothing explicitly precludes the organization from expanding in the long-run to different areas. We plan to have friendly relations with as many nations and alliances as possible, though we will not tolerate any force that jeopardizes our collective security. We welcome countries that share our common goals and are willing and interested to join our partnership, though I should remind these countries that membership is a unanimous vote and all member nations must approve new membership applications.

When

There is no better time than now.

Why

The most important question of all; why go with Fortis? Why not join EDEN? Why not stay neutral?

As Deputy Secretary of State under Scrabman, I’ve lobbied officials to avoid neutrality since the end of ATLANTIS. Part of this is because we simply cannot coordinate with our allies in the same way on a bilateral field. I believe the failed anti-PTO protection of Croatia demonstrates the difficulty in collective action without a multi-lateral organization helping to coordinate activities. Furthermore, PEACE is a dangerous force to America in the long-term. We are safer with a strategic partnership. I recognize and appreciate the fact that America is strong, but we need to maximize our strength. An alliance with close allies goes the furthest in guaranteeing our strength and our allies safety.

But what about EDEN? Why split into two? The fact of the matter is that our friends in Eastern Europe are aligned with a different purpose, a different coordination plan, and quite frankly a different time zone. It became exceedingly difficult to coordinate ATLANTIS over the long run. It was also time to try something new. I believe that EDEN and Fortis will be close friends, but we need not be directly tied to each other. We have greater freedom and flexibility in a smaller, more
centralized alliance.

The countries we’ve joined with are our closest allies. We are all strongly English speakers (our Spanish friends are quite proficient). We all revolve around a closer time zone. We all have similar plans for collective security. So in the end, this is the strongest, most prudent alliance we could create.

Logistically this alliance is well-structured. We created legitimate infrastructure but left much power to the Security Council to allow for flexibility. There won’t be any conflicts over the paying of stipulated penalties, because this alliance has the flexibility to determine outcomes on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, we instituted dues for member-nations so our alliance is not money-starved. That money will absolutely come in handy over the long-run.

In conclusion…

Viva Fortis!