Tales from the Diplomatic Front II (in 3D-Dolby Stereo)

[SmartFart]

republic of croatia,main consul cabinet:

greetings,respected shogun.
let me get straight to the point.
1. i am using a term 'europe',because its much easier than talking in numbers,but if you insist i will send you location of all squares which are part of it (i hope that will not to be necessary).furthermore,you were perfectly awared about location of our motherland and about approximately location of our capital much before you've reached british isles (see our first report).
2. ??? thot i already explained that. rushing our trireme doesn't mean that some other trireme under my flag wasn't already passed that area. i was presumed that you preparing to settle somewhere near my capital and british isles was a logical choice. anyway,since i wasn't 100% sure,i rushed trireme in my closest city to british isles. however,i started to protest only after you already protested about overlaping city in south america.
3. agreed. i will not going to ask you why did you not proceeded with your settlers to some larger land mass than british isles because of great variety of possible answers,but from my point of view kyoto#2 is there because you wanted to establish stronghold into very heart of my state.
4. what espionage? what have i done to deserve that accusation? stole tech? bribed city? sabotaged production? what? i already told you twice ; my diplomat only checked if kyoto#2 can be bribed,because capital cannot be bribed (no 'inicite revolt' option).
5. quite understandable
6. that information can be offered only to friendly empires.

in short,you said taht i have no rights to claim british isles to myself,no matter of position of heart of my state. ok. thats japanese point of view and i respect that. before i sent you an ultimatum,you also said that i am no more welcomed there and i have to ask you for permission to land plus some war threats. i respect that also. but any city under any square need some support to be claimed as a legitimate part of someones empire,or you need permission to build it (exceptions are areas w/o support from any country). british isles obviously have not any close connection with your empire,but it haves with mine. very close. you should respect that also.
i already know that you activated your ally english into our case. god knows what are two of you after,but i can assure you that croatians are more than capable to protect our interests. you haven't showed any sign of friendship since of dawn of our civilization and kyoto#2 will become larger threat to me with every single turn. it is of my foremost concern to protect most important part of my state from anybody,specially from you.furthermore,your empire already have more military than mine. number of japanese units is japanese internal business,but keeping your units away from our state is croatian internal business,don't you agree?

anyway,i am perfectly awared what are you trying to do.all of my explanations was completely waste of time . in your position,i'll probably did the same thing,but some of my voters already calling me a weakling and asking for a king to take over our state. i think you've rushed a bit.
i hope we've all cleared out.

sincerely,smartfart,consul of republic of croatia


croatian foreign office,offical document #020317AC,degree of secrecy : none

greetings,high respected gideon,king of english empire

it's completely understandable to us that you,as a japanese ally and their closest friend,are so astonished by current explosive situation between japan and croatia. since you obviously negate all our arguments about claim of british isles,may we settle north african coast? we assure you that we can be there in very short time. you don't mind that,we suppose? after all,our two empires haven't established their borders yet.

obviously,your foreign minister recieved precise instruction from his mentor,shogun of japanese trading federation. we can't exactly understand what is your interest in japanese-croatian conflict about british islands,except to help japan just because you two are allied. our relationship was very good until now,but we will not accept any military interference from english side.
as for your statements:

1. no comment
2. see answer #4 in letter adressed to japanese shogun
3. obviously,you're not quite familiar with a history and nature of japanese/croatian conflict and your only purpose is to be blind ally.

that's fine but we suggest you to read very carefully all documents above. currently,we are not empire with strongest army and that proves our peaceful intentions,but we assure you,we will know how to protect our interest.

of course we're not considering japanese proposals until our goverment decides different. after all, we've broke all diplomatic relationship with them.

last part of your letter sounds as a call to lynch. it was not quite wise from your side to reveal yourself so easy as our probably enemy. all trade between our two kingdom is stopped until japanese and croatians solve their problem. we hope you know what are you doing.

sincerely,smartfart,consul of republic of croatia


p.s. again,great game and now we have some spice in it,don't you agree? (good point cromwell)

[Grau Geist]

This one has to be short but sweet:

Unfortunately, leader of Croatia, the Japanese have not been able to discuss the situation with the English. They apparently have concluded their condemnation on their own study of the subject! We are not puppetmasters, nor the English Puppets, I'm sure they will make you aware of such an insult.

Secondly, you have said that our original disagreement with you over the particular land squares was insulting and warlike. We would like to remind you that we conceded your rights and apologized for our apparent aggressive stance. I'm sure you also could understand our insistance that you ask us for permission to approach so close to our city for development of said squares, considering the warlike posturing that has taken place between us.
Finally, it was you that insisted on escalating this affair to a war of annilhation (your words) if certain demands were not met. We never demanded anything from you since the beginning of this discussion, rather we proposed a negotiation for land usage, which you have turned into ultimatums and threats that now involve a good portion of the wide spread Japanese nation. We urge you to weigh those FACTS heavily in your upcoming senatorial meetings.

Sincerely, Grau Geist, Shogun, Japanese Trade Federation and Protector of the International Trade Organization

[SmartFart]

republic of croatia,main consul office:

greetings again,high respected shogun of japanese trading federation. it seems that misunderstanding between our two nations slowly,but certanly clears out and i am very pleased about it. of course,that doesn't mean that we have our conflict solved,but at least,both of our goverment understands interests of each other (negate me if i am wrong).
however,i would like to explain one more point.
if you read a little more carefully controversial statement of our defense minister,you will probably conclude that he haven't insisted to escalate this affair into a war of annilhation. he had just expressed an offical statement of our goverment in case of POSSIBLE atrocity.

with all due respects,smartfart,consul of republic of croatia

[Gideon]

To the distinguished Croats, our Northern neighbors: Of all of the nations to accuse other nations of puppetry, the Croats should be last. Your threats toward the Japanese show your belligerence, as do your threats to colonize North Africa.
True, if you were to carry through with your aggressive threats, we would be the first to be annihilated. However, I and all of my English brothers would rather be martyrs for soveriegnty, then slaves to your decadent Empire. Destroy us if you will, or colonize North Africa, which will lead to our destruction, we will not bow to your threats or commands. My people recognize one leader, ME. And I recognize one leader, God.
Of course I came to the aid of the beseiged Japanese, not because I am there puppet, but because they were in the right and threatened by a larger nation.
If our zeal in their defense has offended you, we apologize, our intentions were definitely not war, which would mean our utter destruction, but protection of rights and peace.

- To Liberty, Soveriegnty, and Life

The English

[John Barbarossa]

Open letter from the League of Non-Aligned Nations - a special diplomatic envoy from diplomatic game 1 to diplomatic game 2, charged with an advisory role and reporting details of this game back to Dip 1.

To Consul Smartfart of the Croatian Republic


THE TONE.
We find Croatias use of threatening the extermination and genocide of any country to be a renegade act of an out of control head of state. It is inconsistant that a nation able to haggle and negotiate in the semantic detail Croatia has demonstrated thus far feels the need to talk the same language of violent conflict resolution more suited to less able lands. That Japan is being intransigent is not disputed, however your recent leap to ultimatum shows a worrying militaristic streak in Croatia's diplomacy that leads us to doubt whether there is a civilian government in charge of the Croatian Republic at all.

THE SETTLEMENT
This issue here is one of simple 'recognition' of the various land claims. Japans claim is 'on the ground' in Britain, whereas Madagascar is not Croation. The negotiation should be the recognition of Japanese possesions in Britain vs the recognition by Japan of Croatias deal with the Sioux/Chinese. Running parallel with this, diplomatic game one is also going through the process in Australia, Europe and South America. I look forward to following how both issues develop.

WHAT NEXT FOR CROATIA
Your view that the genocide is only a 'possible genocide' is politically bankrupt and unacceptable to any Civilized nation. Your recent 'baby steps' towards peace fall a long way short of any Croat retraction of you 'war of annihalation' threat. I have been asked to request of Croatia

* A complete and unconditional retraction of Croatias threat to engage in ANY wars of annihalation.

* Croatias commitment to exhaust a political solution to all its conflicts before resorting to military means.

* Croatias commitment to limit all land wars to the area/cities in question and not provoke a more general conflict.

I feel compelled to warn the honourable gentleman that there are worlds and planets (dip1) where such behaviour would land him with a bloody nose. If he later intends to venture into agreements with other players in future games, he would be advised to remember that the world is watching.

Regards
John Barbarossa
For and on behalf of 'The League of Non-Aligned Nations'

[SmartFart]

republic of croatia,main consul office:

greetings again,your excellency gideon,king of english empire.
i think we have another (sigh) misunderstanding here. our 'statement' about colonization of north africa was only a metaphor. its original purpose was to explain a situation in which our state currenly is thanx to japanese usurpation of british isles. our knowledge of english language is far beyond yours,so i can understand if our foreign minister used a wrong chain of words,but here,we call it a sarcasm.
however,i am extremely pleased about your intentions to acting peacefully and to protect rights and peace,but allow me to express my personal opinion about a term such a 'right' is.
what is 'right' to one kingdom and their possible allies,it doesn't means that is also 'right' to some other kingdom and their possible allies.
so,your excellency considers that our possible settlement in northern africa
will probably leading to your utter destruction and in the same time openly approved japanese settlement in western europe. quite interesting,don't you agree?
as for your statement 'destroy us if you will,etc.etc.',i would like to know what is the point of it? name just one example where we acted agressive against your empire.
same question is adressed to all nation.
obviously,you and japanese shogun are concerned about size and strength of our empire (which is,by the way,attained with hard work and without microscopic speck on our reputation),but it doesn't means that you two can put pressure on us without our reaction.

sincerely,smartfart,consul of republic of croatia

croatian foreign office,offical document #020324AA:

to everybody concerned sides :
we apologize about #5 of our ultimatum sent to shogun of japanese trading federation.
it's poor excuse,but we would like to say that #5 was written immediately after we recieved disturbing letter from japanese trading federation,when the heads was very hot. our minister of defense submited irrevocable resignation and has been replaced with general von klinkenhoffen.
now we're not trying to say that someone already commited an atrocity to us,but we would like to know what other nations thinks about military/espionage action without declaring war in advance.

republic of croatia,main consul office:

-to special diplomatic envoy from another planet:

its a great honour for us to recieve you.
allow me to get straight to the point:

*1. already done. anyway,i would like to hear your comments about possible war actions without declaration; such as sneak attacking,stealing techs,bribing,etc.

*2. its very dependable question. in my opinion,my very first proposal to japanese was more than fair. obviously,the tone is very important to you. it is important to me as well and japanese answer to my proposal wasn't exactly written in a friendly tone,don't you agree?
anyway,am always open to negotiate,but only on a fair basis. so far,i have my own conclusions about japanese intentions. of course,i may be just paranoic,but since they haven't showed any sign of friendship from the very beginning of our game (if you insist i can send particulary examples),i don't think so. i wonder if any serious world leader will stayed calm if some distant empire raising an army rapidly and placing cities (only one for now,but there are at least 2 good spots on british isles) very close to my capital when the world is still full of unoccupied land and resources.

*3. see #6 of croatian ultimatum to japanese

your proposal about our negotiations with japan doesn't looks quite logical to me.
if croatia recognize kyoto#2,its impossible for japan to recognize my deal with chinese/sioux and if japan recognize my deal with chinese/siouxs they have to leave british isles and i will not be able to recognize kyoto#2.( i know what you ment,but as you already pointed out i like to argue )
as for the 'bloody nose' remark; this isn't in direct connection with any of our games,so i wouldn't comment that in this thread. hope we will do some negotiations in 'tales from the diplomatic front 3' someday.
aargh...i almost forgot (as a matter of fact i forgot and edited)...you said that you were ASKED to do your requests. how can be that possible? does that means that someone already have SETI completed?

take care

sf

p.s. MATCHDAY!!! at last



[This message has been edited by SmartFart (edited May 29, 1999).]

[This message has been edited by SmartFart (edited May 29, 1999).]

[KenThur]

We on tap of 2pm eastern as w/ last Sat? I can go earlier if works w/ others. Spread the word!
As for the media debate raging above... i can see alot of good / fair points on both sides. Since i'm still a "non-exsistant" civ rumuored to be on this earth somewhere, i will / can have little input.
Altho, the 1 action / reaction i have a prob w/ is that investigating a city = "spying". What are we to do, trust blindly? i don't think so. i could see if later in the game a central city or 2 are declared off limits to others (perhaps even allies), ala Area 51 in the US & what is it, Gorky city(?), in the USSR & other such cities/areas in every country. But peaceful intentions should be verifable for "frontline" cities... everywhere, if a leader has a prob w/ that, then i for 1, would have to place the leader/city on my "caution list". IMS-HO

[Gideon]

We the English, following the example of the wise Swiss. Have now completely attained neutrality. Our utmost apologies are to the Croats and to any others we may have offended. This change has come about due to the recent death of our beloved, bold, hot-headed, rash, King Jimbob I. He has now been replaced with Jimbob II. WHo has returned Cairo to the Sioux, and call upon all nations to find peaceful answers to their problems.

[Martin Guerre]

Martin Guerre,
Standing in for Chinese Leader.

Having subbed for this session, I thought it would be useful to describe the Chinese position as I saw it, especially as our actions came under heavy criticism in some quarters.

The Chinese were allied to both of their neighbours, the Sioux and Croats. The maintenace of these alliances was of extreme importance to the Chinese because of their own very weak military and relatively small territory. The only chance for China's future prosperity, as I saw it, was to maintain thse excellent relations with her bordering states. Technologically, China was doing well under her old ruler, but her population was tiny and she depended on complete peace for her stability.

Only the guarantees of her more powerful neighbours allowed China to have such a small army. This is an excellent policy which allows a nation to prosper without the need to burden the economy with military units and infrastructure, but it does rely on keeping to the more powerful ally's foreign policy.

As soon as the session started, we agreed to abide by the pre-established borders with our neighbours, and to continue the Aliances as they were.

Very soon after the commencement of the session, we were called upon by our allies the Sioux to condemn the English and Japanese over some action in Africa. The situation was not entirely clear for some time, but we were obliged by treaty to come to the aid of our ally, and this we did, in very strong terms.In fact we had so little to do domestically that we had plenty of time to sit in on the negotiations that were taking place. These negotiations were very heated!

The nature of these negotiations evidently took the rest of the world by surprise. It seemed that the view held commonly was that China had no interest in the dispute (over Cairo, Egypt), and that since we did not border the area, it was of no concern to us.

I must reject this point of view for the following reasons:

1 it was definitely in China's interest to see that a friendly power held the key to the Suez Canal Zone;

2 it was definitely in China's interest to argue as strongly as possible in favour of the position of our ally, since we would no doubt have to seek their support in return at some point in the future;

3 diplomacy is not concerned with the maintenance of peace above all else, but rather with the furthering of a country's aims through the most effective policies. This usually means peace because war is so expensive and wasteful, but, war is still the continuation of politics through other means.

Eventually, the matter did descend into war because of a lack of any fall back or compromise position from the English, who bribed Cairo with a diplomat unit. Under the terms of our alliance we had no choice but to declare war on them ourselves.

The English were only forced to make amends when - as a direct result of our three way diplomacy between the Chinese, Croats and Sioux - the Croats decided to come to the aid of the Sioux, at which point the English sensibly backed down and gave Cairo back.

It seems that certain players were alarmed at the strength of Chinese backing for the Sioux. This I found surprising, since my policy was simply to be of assistance diplomatically - by denouncing actions which went against my interests and those of both my allies - in the only way I could, ie:verbally, since I could not offer much military support (I gave the Sioux a single horseman as a token gesture).

I feel I should point out that I consider playing Diplomatic Civ to be partly an exercise in roleplaying, and that players should act the part of world leaders and statesmen (and women on those rare occassions), which I hope I did in this session. Hence my tone was formal throughout, and I was surprised that this was not universaly adopted by other players. My real name is not Martin Guerre, obviously, and I am not really the Chinese leader, equally obviously, but I feel obliged to make believe that this is the case. I would appreciate feedback on this point.

Finally, on the matter of the "heat" of the negotiations- frankly I have seen hotter! The kind of Diplomatic Game I want to play is one wherein the respective world leaders argue their case and conduct their negotiations to the utmost of their ability. Having seen the transcript from the Dip One game of last weekend, the negotiations in that were no less heated, but did lead to a peace agreement of monumentous proportions, as detailed elsewhere. Surely it is up to the leader of a nation to argue their case as strongly as possible? This does NOT mean argument for its own sake, since the key to failure over Cairo was the lack of compromise from the English camp and their refusal to budge in the face of world opinion. Rather, it means having a fall back position that the opponent is glad to accept after you have exhausted them in the negotiations. I hope my future allies argue my case as stongly as I did for the Sioux. That is what diplomacy is all about: settling an issue by force of argument rather than force of arms, wherever possible.

Thanks for the game, gentlemen.

[SmartFart]

before i write any comment about our 4 session,i would like to clear something out.
most important reason why am not playing anymore civleague games and why am not using the zone anymore is:

- people takes civ2 too seriously.
now am not trying to say that i don't care who wins and that sort of things. my point is that some players really thinks that someone did killed his horseman for REAL.
in my opinion,some of events in our 4th session were quite unpleasant. any player unabled to draw a line between real life and civ2 is no fun to play.

i remember my last game on the zone. there was one guy (death of light or something like that) and we've started a 3 players civleague game. they were allied against me from the very beginning. when i completely anihallated one of them (i forgot his name) i was falled a little bit behind remained player because of 2 against 1 odds. as soon as remained player realized that am rapidly growing,both military and by population,he started with insults,whining,threats and that sort of things. almost every 10 seconds i got pop-up with 'you suck,am gonna kill you,am gonna do this am gonna do that'. when i muted him,he continued thru 'zone friends' pager. so i retired and decided to never show up to continue our game.
i can perfectly understand that someone really hates when game events turn against him,but what i really dislike is when someone can't control his emotions.
am not going to say anything more about that subject ( after all,it wasn't that bad ),but i just wanted you guys to know that if things really get out of control,you can count me out for future sessions.

now to some good thinghs

on my great pleasure,japanese and croats have their problem solved now. it wasn't easy,but somehow we've done it. i really forgot to ask about road/irrigation on (74,28),but deal is a deal.
in short,japanese and all involved nations recognized madagascar as a legitimate part of my civilization no matter about my currently unpresence there. japanese also promised that kyoto#2 stays as a only japanese city in whole europe. in return,i've recognized kyoto#2 (without 74,28) as a legitimate part of japan and ceded all 4 overlaping squares to them.
to be perfectly honest i've been disbanded that overlaping city in my very first turn of 4th session.
furthermore,we had a 1st war in the game.
i was astonished when i saw english attacked much more powerful sioux. it was a matter of VERY important thing: suez channel.
situation was almost too complicated.
on one side was sioux allied with chinese,and on another was english allied with japanese and russians,but russians was far away into north america. i was well awared about japanese military strength,but had no idea of their type. it could be triremes and explorers as well as veteran elephants and charriots. however,since i was loyal ally of chinese i couldn't stayed out of this conflict and from the other side,i was worried about possible sioux spreading all over north african coast.
one important fact overweighted to sioux side; i was two turns before a war with japanese. possible control of suez channel from a loyal ally of my future enemy could cost me too much. very soon after i allied with sioux and picked my side in that war,england made wise decision and recognize cairo as a legitimate part of sioux empire. john (sub for icer) was faced with request from ALL leaders to not to spread further onto african soil and peace was signed.

one of my triremes carrying a diplo and a bag full of gold coins was one turn away from kyoto#2. now i was faced with a request from ALL world leaders to make some compromise with japan about british question. obviously,both of my allies considered that my eventually bribing of kyoto#2 will only cement my lead. furthermore,presence of a single japanese city on british isles wasn't any threat to them. so,they've urged me to find some peacefull solution.
it was all in my hands,but i concluded i've already spended too much time and resources to increase my military strength and any longer war between me and japanese would certainly made more damage than benefits to both japanese and myself. not to mention that my REPUBLIC couldn't afford too much military.
once again,peace spread all over the world and we can continue with improving our civilizations.

until our next session

sf

[Glohithia]

Pardon me for butting in, but some of the things Martin and Smartfart have just said strike close to home for me lately.

I have been concerned since I started playing our Diplo game that people might take me seriously, since I get into the role a lot. This is all new to me and I didnt realize just how into it I would get. I bungled around a bit trying to tell John B and Nappy(because they were on the receiving end of my forum posts a lot) my philosophy on this type of game, but probably didnt get my point across. Martin hit it on the head though, its Roleplaying. I understand that its not personal if somebody attacks me, verbally or and actual assault, in the game. I expect similar treatment in return. Afterwards, Im inclined to laugh and talk it over with the players involved.

In our game, everybody has accepted this point of view. I hope things work out as well for you. It would be ashame if Smartfart would feel he needed to quit. How would I get my entertainment? The Croatian/Japanese posts were great!

[Grau Geist]

( I think we all are well schooled in the art of Role playing and acting, I'm sure that whomever SF was refering to is as well. An Outraged King is not going to keep his cool at least not in 225 B.C., perhaps as civilizations become more civilized we shall have more diplomatic discussions, until then SF, don't worry people here are a lot more personable than the scum of the universe you might encounter at the zone )

JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES:
The Japanese Trade Federation was outraged at the flagrent bullying the Chinese and Sioux were able to pull on the English. We Admire and respect the way the English submitted in the interest of Peace. We in turn followed their lead.

We hope world opinion, rather than force may prove to win the day in favor of the English. The facts were rather cluttered in the Heated sessions and thus should be presented here. The Japanese are very involved and knowledgeable in this matter for it watched the history unfold.
THE CAIRO AFFAIR:
Early in the Earth's history, Our great Neighbors to the North, the ENGLISH, built a fine city on the Nile in the land of Egypt. The Evil AI of the Sioux subsequently destroyed this city shortly before he was ousted by Cromwell and Icer. The evil AI fled to Africa where he over threw King JIMBOB of the ENGLISH. The Sioux then set up a defensive city in egypt, Cairo, to defend against the AI led English. We also were attacked by the ENGLISH under the evil AI, but we were instrumental in restoring the rightful King Jimbob.
At our urging, Jimbob requested the once English land back. I'm not sure what kind of offers were made, but following A BRIBE by the SIOUX on an ENGLISH Phalanx (a defensive unit) the ENGLISH bribed CAIRO. The Triple Alliance declared war and 5 CIVs were at war before the AD's ??
Jimbob graciously accepted peace and lost everything without compensation. Despite Croatian threat of war in the British Isle, the Japanese were well able to protect all of their interests as well as help defend the African Continent from any onslaught.

However peace was chosen and peace is more beneficial to TRADE which is what the JAPANESE TRADE FEDERATION is all about. which is why the Japanese accepted peace with the Croatians over the British Isles. Japan was originally unable to comply with the proposed treaty, b/c we had already established other cities a long time before the controversy arose. At great expense to the Japanese Trade Federation we were forced to take extreme measures to compromise with the demanding Croatians. But peace was achieved and we hope Trade will ensue. We also look forward to the establshment of the Croatian city in Madagascar to further relations and trade between the two nations.

As for TRADE we have already offered this technology to two nations without it in the interest of world wide trade, the foundation of the International Trade Organization. WE will be happy to provide it to anyone else without.

TRADE FACTOID: SF said recently in his Foreign Minister's statement that a city is limited to 3 trade routes and that no unauthorized trade would be permitted. SF is correct in the first account, however limiting trade only proves to harm BOTH civilizations. If 3 routes exist and one more is established the more PROFITABLE routes will remain in affect. Therefore If Tenochtitlan and Teotihuacan have 3 routes between the two, and I establish a MORE Profitable (to Tenochtitlan) route from Kyoto, Tenochtitlan will keep the two most profitable routes from Teotihuacan and gain a more profitable route with Kyoto. Teotihucan will RETAIN its 3 routes with Tenochtitlan!! Likewise if the route from Kyoto is less profitable it will not show up.
LESSON: there is NO HARM in Trading, so lets get too it!!!

Sincerely, Grau Geist, Shogun and soon to be Consul of the Japanese Trade Federation and Protector of the International Trade Organization.

[Gideon]

I have no doubt it was me SF was talking about. I apologize if I have been gung-ho. This is my very first game and I am also amazed at how into it I get.
Faced by the difficult Cairo decision, I viewed my position as very weak. My only allies could offer but limited support. Also, I was completely outgunned by the Sioux, and even more so by their allies. Luckily, peace prevailed and I can continue this game without being annihilated.
I will try to scale back my zeal in my part if it has offended anyone.
King Jimbob II of the English

[Martin Guerre]

From Martin Guerre,
High Commissioner,
International Convention on Diplomatic Protocol.

It is truly heart warming to note that voices of moderation are making themselves heard in the English/Japanese camp.

However, I must take up a point raised by the esteemed leader of the Japanese Trading Federation, with regard to his assertion that he hopes to see the "force of world opinion" seetlimg issues. The International Convention on Diplomatic Protocol would like to point out that Diplomacy is not the same thing as Democracy:

All voices in the world do not carry equal weight - only the powerful can demand that others listen to their communiqués, others can merely hope that the world will take heed of what they say;

No responsible world leader should do as others demand unless a) he has no choice, or b) the demand is in the interests of his nation;

Peace is only preferable to War for a stronger nation as long as the end result is the same.

Diplomacy, as far as the I.C.D.P. is concerned, gives the parties in a conflict the ability to resolve an issue before it comes to engaging in military action. In a dispute between two states, where they decide to settle the matter by diplomacy, the final outcome would naturally be the same as if they had gone to war, but without all the waste that this involves. This outcome is modified by the following: The skill of the diplomats involved; The influence of more or less powerful friends on either side.

It would be a mistake to expect powerful states, such as the Great Smart Fart's Croatia, to listen to the weak voices of other less powerful states when they do not need to. This is why it is necessary to build coalitions against the powerful, soo that the diplomatic scales are tilted in favour of the weak.

But only the skill of the diplomats makes this a reality, not some high-minded ideal which says that all states have an equal say in all matters. Diplomatic Civ2 is more like the U.N. Security Council, where the Superpowers have the last word, than the U.N. General Assembly, where every State has an equal vote.

Looking forward to your future developments with great interest, and listening avidly to all your posts,

Best wishes to all members of the International Family of Nations.

Martin Guerre.

[Grau Geist]

Very astute observation Martin, we shall keeping our ears to the ground in anticipation for the future wisdom of the High Commissioner of the International Convention to Diplomatic Protocol