Statement on "Condemn The New Inquisition"

The New Inquisition makes the following statement on the document vilifying and reviling the record of our region as an imperialist power.

The contributions of The New Inquisition to NationStates gameplay possess a lasting significance. Many important regions to this day are shaped by actions of TNI long ago. But the greatest contribution of TNI was not its isolated effects on any specific region or sphere, however long-lasting those effects may be. From a global perspective, The New Inquisition was indeed "among the most belligerent and dangerous regions in world history" in a certain sense: specifically, we were belligerent and dangerous to Defender organizations which threatened all regions in the game which dared act or think in a way contrary to the interests and ideals of the Defender political project. Without TNI's opposition, the Defender establishment would have dominated world politics unchallenged.

The New Inquisition was unprecedentedly dangerous to the enemies of freedom and sovereignty in NationStates. No one could deny that imperialism as practised by TNI and its allies was and is self-interested in motivation. However, the self-interest of The New Inquisition was aligned with the liberty of sovereign regions across the world. In the face of corrupt Defender alliances, which repressed the freedom of all states in inter-regional politics, The New Inquisition was a bulwark which refused to submit. Instead, TNI fought and defeated the more established and connected Defender alliances.

The real question which each region faces individually in reaching a judgement on these issues is whether the use of force is justified when resisting the malign activities of the enemies of freedom and regional sovereignty. If such force is justified, then the claims behind the condemnation collapse because such resistance is what TNI's actions amounted to.

The New Inquisition was the military and diplomatic powerhouse which Defender alliances and their sympathisers proved unable to beat in war or diplomacy. Unable to defeat TNI through traditional routes, our enemies turned to Security Council resolutions to express their fear and resentment towards The New Inquisition.

In July 2012, the first significant proposal entitled "Condemn The New Inquisition" was submitted and then withdrawn.
In August 2013, the second proposal "Condemn The New Inquisition" was defeated 8,844 votes to 2,471.
In February 2015, the third proposal "Condemn The New Inquisition" was defeated 7,587 votes to 3,999.

In August 2019, the fourth proposal "Condemn The New Inquisition" has passed 8,440 votes to 4,736.

The condemnation which passed shares an author and substantially the same text with the defeated February 2015 proposal. The World Assembly has already assessed and rejected it. Despite the different outcome of this vote, it is a matter of record what the Security Council made of condemning TNI at a time closer to the events concerned. Now when TNI is dormant, our enemies still fear us and the matter was once again brought back before the World Assembly.

On each of the occasions prior to August 2019 when condemning TNI was considered, the nations and regions of the world rightly judged that the influence of The New Inquisition on the world was overwhelmingly beneficial for freedom and sovereignty in NationStates. The same conclusion is the correct one today.

The specific claims of the condemnation text are questionable and ill-founded. For those interested in the detail, the following should be noted:

1. Far from our war against the FRA being absurd or illegitimate, The New Inquisition was fully justified in responding to FRA aggression. The Founderles Regions Alliance initiated hostilities against TNI, not the other way round, by invading our dominion of Valhalla in November 2006. Prior to the FRA seizing TNI territory, there was no contact between TNI and the FRA. Subsequently, the FRA committed numerous acts of aggression against TNI, many of them going beyond military interactions. For instance, the FRA repeatedly set spies on our region, infiltrating TNI to cabinet level, and attempted to provoke us into banning senior members by forging evidence framing them as FRA spies. The FRA also conducted large-scale infiltrations of TNI allies with looser security procedures such as Europeia and Ainur with the ultimate objective of spying on TNI through these regions. Such actions outraged the citizens of TNI and gave TNI good reason to continue war.

2. The symbolic invasion of The Rejected Realms in February 2012 was a proportionate response to acts of FRA aggression against TNI, as were the other anti-FRA military operations listed in the resolution. The Rejected Realms was part of the FRA, a military organization, at a time when TNI and the FRA were engaged in a war fought over several years. It was reasonable and expected for TNI to mount a temporary invasion of The Rejected Realms. Condemning TNI for such an intervention represents interference with the prerogative of all regions to wage wars in self-defence against those who attack them. Leading members of TRR had previously endorsed and participated in aggressive acts against TNI. We had a right to retaliate. The invasion inflicted no permanent tangible damage on TRR and was only for 1 update in duration. The principal effect was the symbolism of TNI's conquest. In no way is such proportionate and limited retaliation for hostile acts, pursued as part of a sovereign war, worthy of condemnation.

3. There was no "Subversion of the community and government of Lazarus by a senior official of The New Inquisition". This repeats the Francoist propaganda distributed by the agents of the New Pacific Order, which the world ultimately saw through with the multi-regional declarations of war seen in late 2018. In the alleged evidence (which the author of the resolution borrows directly from the discredited "NPO's Retort"), the member of Lazarus concerned was merely testing the waters to assess the adverse intentions of the NPO and Defender organizations towards Lazarus. The clause complains that TNI did not condemn the official's actions. Like other regions (including Europeia and Balder) in which the official was a high-ranking member, TNI was not asked to condemn the official's actions prior to the release of the NPO's Retort, as the conversation was not public knowledge. The resolution shamefully seeks to validate the false claims by the New Pacific Order made to justify a tyrannical purge of Lazarus, including of Griffin Somerset, the longest-serving delegate in the recorded history of Lazarus.

4. The clause relating to Osiris in summer 2013 is a highly unfair misrepresentation. Osiris could not have been recovered for its natives without our assistance. Far from aiding The Dourian Embassy and Gatesville's coup, it was only through the intervention of TNI and the LKE that the coup was defeated. With the active consent of Cormac and Osiris at the time, TNI and the LKE pretended to support the coup so the perpetrators permitted them to move military units into the region. Only by planting high-influence puppets in Osiris could the leverage be gained by which Gatesville was eventually forced to surrender. Achieving this required certain pretences, which are now being cited against TNI. In reality, TNI as part of the UIAF saved the community of Osiris from an existential threat.

5. Condemning TNI for terminating our treaty with The South Pacific is a significant over-reach into regulating legitimate acts of diplomacy. Regions should be allowed to decide who they want to be their allies or not. TNI decided that it was inconsistent and incompatible to be allied to a region which was in turn allied with a region which TNI was waging a war against. When a formal, legal state of war existed, we reached the conclusion that such an alliance would not be meaningful and risked compromising the interests of all parties. Possibly TNI's decision was wrong, but it is hardly condemnable. Condemning TNI risks undermining the credibility of the Security Council and imposing an absurd restraint on the ability of sovereign regions to enter into and leave treaties freely.

6. Far from being absurd, the invasion and re-founding of Concosia was the culmination of a long-standing, mutually voluntary war between Gatesville and Concosia. TNI was allied to Gatesville as a participant in that war and invaded Concosia as a result. Concosia invited such retaliation from Gatesville and its allies by waging war on Gatesville; it defined itself as anti-Gatesville region. Meanwhile, subsequent to TNI's occupation of Concosia, the United Defenders League gained the password via a leak from a rogue TNI officer and attempted to re-found a region under TNI sovereignty. In cooperation with our allies, we thwarted the UDL's plan and intercepted the re-founding. It was reasonable for TNI to declare war in response to the UDL's failed attempt to seize our territory.

7. The resolution refers to political developments in The North Pacific and The East Pacific during 2008. These events occurred in a very different geopolitical landscape to the one which would exist only two or three years later. The New Inquisition was later a leading opponent of coup attempts in The South Pacific, Osiris and Lazarus. Particularly from 2011 onwards, The New Inquisition developed warm and productive relationships with the majority of Game-Created Regions (with a small number of exceptions where GCRs were controlled or corrupted by Defender politicians hostile to TNI). In particular, The New Inquisition Armed Forces worked worked closely with each of the North Pacific Army, The West Pacific Armed Forces and the Jomsvikings of Balder towards shared offensive and defensive military objectives. It is this later period which defines the interactions between The New Inquisition and the Game-Created Regions.

8. The final bullet point claims that TNI used wars against the FRA and the UDL to "rationalize invasion and occupation of countless regions throughout the world, often with little or no actual connection to the FRA or the UDL". In the majority of examples listed in the text of the resolutions, TNI either cited other specific justifications for invading the region concerned or emphasised the general benefits from conducting operations of that kind (including in providing opportunities to confront and defeat enemies of TNI). For instance, The True Rebirth posted an advertisement on the regional message board of a founded dominion belonging to an ally of TNI and was temporarily invaded as a result. Other listed cases such as New Zealand, Australia and Scotland had no specific political justification and were standard raids. Slavia is the only example listed in that bullet point where the only central justification for TNI military action was a link to the FRA or the UDL. Slavia was a member-region of the FRA at the time of the invasion, so the justification advanced was fitting and the connection with the FRA was real.