Sulsuan Protectorate

The Alliance of the Sulsuan Protectorate, otherwise known as the Sulsuan Protectorate, is a political and economic union state of Mithadorn-inhabited planets, including their homeworld, and its colonies.

Tasked with maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international co-operation, and being a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations, the Sulsuan Protectorate was formed after the Mithadorn Colonial Wars with the aim of preventing future conflicts, and succeeded the ineffective Alliance of Mithadorn Systems.

Financed by voluntary contributions from its member states, its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting sapient rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development, and upholding international law within the territories of its members.

The Alliance of Mithadorn Systems
The foundations of the Sulsuan Protectorate laid during the collapse of the Alliance of Mithadorn Systems, the ineffective predecessor to the modern Protectorate. The Alliance was founded in 721 to ensure peace between the increasingly disparate and hostile mithadorn star-nations as they declared, and were granted, independence from the Sulsuan League. Envisioned as an intergovernmental body to maintain positive diplomatic relations between the increasingly diverse and rivalrous mithadorn states, the Alliance began to completely collapse in 1201, following skirmishes for resources between multiple member-states. By 1220, all hope for peace had been lost, as a trilateral conflict emerged from an open insurgency against the Elysian Empire upon the colony of Kodath.

Although the Alliance had attempted to settle the conflict peacefully, and maintain peace between the disparate states, preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration, it had failed its purpose, completely dissolving with the onset of the Mithadorn Colonial Wars.

Mithadorn Colonial Wars
The Mithadorn Colonial Wars began when the Kodath Liberation Movement, covertly supported by the Ulaouan Union through smuggling of weapons, armour, and vehicles, were discovered to be collaborating with several supporters from across mithadorn-inhabited space. The discovery that the Ulaouan Union, Socialist Republic of Laeros, and rebel-cells from the Yuluan Superstate were supplying the Kodrath Liberation Movement, open war broke out between the Elysian Empire, supported by the Sulsuan League and Duchy of Beraxis, and the Ulaouan Union and Socialist Republic.

While this war was, initially, contained to the planet of Kodath, and the surrounding star systems, after only a month of fighting, it had drawn in additional combatants from nearly every mithadorn state. Exploiting the confusion, the Elysian Insurrectionist Front began a renewed rebellion against their perceived oppressors, targeting the Kodath Liberation Movement and the Elysian Empire equally. Supported by the Haelmbani State and Yuluan Superstate, the initial cause of the conflict was soon overshadowed by animosity and rivalry between the combatants, as the former territories of the Alliance of Mithadorn Systems were embroiled in a galactic free-for-all.

As the war raged on, causing countless casualties, atrocities and war crimes became more and more commonplace. Upon Iowaes, Elysian soldiers massacred twenty-three million unarmed civilians in terror-strikes designed to crush the will of Ulaouan Union, while on Tiasira Berxanain bombardment left the capital and many major cities in ruins, decimating industries, cutting power, and wasting farmlands that led to the near-collapse of the entire planet.

In 1233, after thirteen bloody years of fighting, the Elysian Insurrectionist Front completely collapsed, while the capacity of continued conflict between all major powers had been decimated. The Sulsuan League sued for peace, inviting representatives from all belligerent nations to attend - and all did. After a two-week period of negotiation and deliberation, the mithadorn nations agreed to a unanimous peace agreement; all of the factions involved in the fighting would partially demilitarise, and the planet of Kodath would be allowed to secede, gaining independence.

Treaties and Ties
With the devastating war at an end, the various mithadorn states called for extranational relief from the nearby Andromedan Covenant Territories and Dominion of Andromeda, whose support was vital for the reconstruction of infrastructure. As each state fell into an economic depression, trade between the empires began to increase in a desperate bid to prevent total economic collapse.

Before the year's end, the Charter of the Protectorate had been drafted by the Sulsuan League and signed by several combatants of the prior war in an effort to maintain the new peace, and improve inter-state relations and economics. Although the new Protectorate was dominated politically by Sulsua as the driving force, the mithadorn homeworld was agreed to be the most appropriate figurehead for the species. As states joined out of a desire for access to the new infrastructure and economy being built, the Sulsuan Protectorate was founded, promoting peace and prosperity for all their kind, hoping to never again engage in such a bloody and amoral war.

Birth of a Confederation
Firmly establishing itself as the new supranational organisation to maintain peace across the disparate and tense mithadorn stellar nations, the Sulsuan Protectorate began to work on integrating its members more closely so as to discourage future conflict, without impeding on the sovereignty of its members. The Protectorate Council was established in 1236, eight representatives from each member-state convening on Sulsua to elect a figurehead to lead the new union, and establish new means to unite the various nations, many of whom still bore grudges with one another over the atrocities committed during the war.

The development of a common market, subsequently becoming a single market, and a customs union between its member states, allowing the free circulation of goods, capital, people, and services within the Protectorate was the first approved measure to bind the many embittered groups together, allowing economic prosperity and flourishing trade that could benefit all members, and severely discourage further nationalistic violence and enmity.

The establishment of the Protectorate Army was the second major achievement of the fledgeling Protectorate, comprised of men and women from all member-nations, operating under a standardised organisation answerable only to the Protectorate Council. This army was intended to protect the whole of the union, while also acting to punish offences from within, and discourage rebellion and separatism.

Member States
The Sulsuan Protectorate consists of 10 member states. Each member state is a party to the founding treaties of the union and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. Unlike members of most international organisations, the member states of the Protectorate are subjected to binding laws in exchange for representation within the common legislative and judicial institutions. Member states must agree unanimously for the Protectorate to adopt policies concerning defence and foreign policy. Through successive enlargements, the Sulsuan Protectorate has grown from the five founding states (The Sulsuan Leauge, Duchy of Beraxis, Ulaouan Union, Elysian Empire, and Haelmbani State) to the current 10. Countries accede to the union by becoming a party to the founding treaties, thereby subjecting themselves to the privileges and obligations of Protectorate membership.

This requires stable sovereignty that respects sapient rights and the rule of law; a functioning market economy; and the acceptance of the obligations of membership, including Protectorate law. Evaluation of a state's fulfilment of the criteria is the responsibility of the Protectorate Council. No member state has yet left the alliance, despite the threats of founding-member the Duchy of Beraxis to do so.

There is a disparity in the size, wealth, and political system of member states, but all have de jure equal rights. In practice, certain states are considerably more influential than others. While in some areas majority voting takes place where larger states have more votes than smaller ones, smaller states have disproportional representation compared to their population.

Politics
The Protectorate operates through a hybrid system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making, and according to the principles of conferral (which says that it should act only within the limits of the competences conferred on it by the treaties) and of subsidiarity (which says that it should act only where an objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by the member states acting alone). Laws passed by Protectorate institutions are implemented in a variety of forms. Generally speaking, they can be classified into two groups: those which come into force without the necessity for national implementation measures (regulations) and those which specifically require national implementation measures (directives).

Constitutionally, the Protectorate bears some resemblance to both a confederation and a federation although it has been formally defined as a confederacy. Its status is defined by the Treaty of Sulsua and the Treaty on the Functioning of the Protectorate. It is more integrated than a traditional confederation of states; the general level of government widely employs qualified majority voting in some decision-making among the member states, rather than relying exclusively on unanimity.

Members of the Protectorate retain control of the use of their individual armed force, they retain control of taxation, and they retain a right of unilateral withdrawal from the Protectorate, at the expense of Protectorate-mandated defence agreements. Each member additionally retains the right to govern internally as it so wishes, under any governmental form it wishes, whether democratic, oligarchic, dictatorial or imperial, so long as it upholds the rights of its citizens.

Legal System and Justice
Protectorate Law is founded within the treaties and ties that the confederacy was built on. These treaties set broad policies and establish institutions with the necessary legal powers to implement the goals of said agendas.

Although the Sulsuan Protectorate does not have a codified constitution, like every political body it has laws which "constitute" its basic governance structure. The Proectorates's primary constitutional sources have been agreed or adhered to among the governments of all 10 member states, and typically hold higher legal precedent than laws enacted by its individual members.

Should a local law conflict with the Protectorate's own rulings or a state is found to not enforce Protectorate laws, it may be investigated by the Commission of Protectorate Law and Order. Such investigations, if it finds the offender guilty, will typically punish the offender with sanctions or fines, and potentially the loss of voting privileges in extreme cases within the Protectorate Council.

The Protectorate has legal personality, with the right to sign agreements and international treaties, and is itself responsible for international relations.

Home Affairs and Migration
Although the worlds of the Protectorate have not abandoned customs stations, citizens of Protectorate member states are granted the legal right to travel between and settle on any world belonging to its members. This 'open-borders' agreement allows all Mithadorn citizens of Protectorate member states the free right to travel and do commerce without restraint. Many of the members of the Sulsuan Protectorate extend this right to xeno citizens, although this is not universally followed, nor legally required.

As to prevent criminals escaping from the jurisdiction of one state by fleeing to another, and to prevent smuggling of illegal goods, those crossing through spaceports must still show valid identification to be allowed to pass onto a planet, and cargo searches are still permissible.

Diplomatic Missions
The Sulsuan Protectorate operates as a whole when acting upon the interstellar playing field of the galactic stage, running three hundred and forty-two individual diplomatic missions, of which two-hundred-and-four are embassies. Managed by the Office of Interstate Relations, the office manages the trade deals, embassies, joint-military operations (through the Protectorate Army), and Protectorate Senate.

The foreign relations between the Sulsuan Protectorate, Andromedan Covenant Territories, Dominion of Andromeda, and Draknisi Imperium are considered the utmost important political ties to the Protectorate and are believed to be responsible for the vast majority of technological and resource wealth of the Protectorate. The Covenant maintains an embassy on Sulsua, and is currently operating an on-going missionary operation within several Protectorate member-states.

Military and Peacekeeping
The Grand Army of the Protectorate, often shortened to the Protectorate Army serves as the primary military and peacekeeping force of the Sulsuan Protectorate. The Protectorate sends peacekeepers to regions under Protectorate control, where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities.

The Protectorate Army is managed by the Department of Peace Operations as a dynamic instrument developed to help members of the Protectorate torn by conflict to create the conditions for lasting peace. The earliest operations of the Protectorate Army was de-escalating the conflicts that tore the Alliance of Mithadorn Systems apart. Since then, the organisation has largely transitioned to a response force and policing organisation responsible with the capture of pirates and terrorists operating within Protectorate territory.

Each member-state of the Protectorate additionally maintains its own military force responsible for the defence of colonies belonging to that individual state. Often, these local militaries come into conflict with the Protectorate Army over matters of jurisdiction and authority within their sectors.

Internal market
One of the original core objectives of the five states forming the Alliance of the Sulsuan Protectorate was the development of a common market, subsequently becoming a single market and a customs union between the members of the Protectorate. The single market provides the free circulation of goods, capital, people, and services within the Sulsuan Protectorate. The customs union involves the application of a common external tariff on all goods entering the market. Once goods have been admitted into the market they cannot be subjected to customs duties, discriminatory taxes or import quotas, as they travel internally.

Monetary union
The creation of a single currency shared by all Protectorate states became an official objective of the Protectorate Economic Community in 1391. In 1312, having negotiated the structure and procedures of a currency union, the member states signed the Treaty of Unified Currency and were legally bound to fulfil the agreed-on rules including convergence criteria if they wanted to join the monetary union.

In 1415 the currency union started, first as an accounting currency with eleven member states joining. In 1420, the currency, the cenu, was fully put into place, when cenu notes and coins were issued and national currencies began to phase out in the Protectorate, which by then consisted of 12 member states.

The cenu and the monetary policies of those who have adopted it in agreement with the Protectorate are under the control of the Protectorate Central Bank. The PCB is the central bank for the eurozone, and thus controls monetary policy in that area with an agenda to maintain price stability. It is at the centre of the European System of Central Banks, which comprehends all Protectorate national central banks and is controlled by its General Council, consisting of the President of the PCB, who is appointed by the Protectorate Council, the Vice-President of the PCB, and the governors of the national central banks of all 10 Protectorate member states.

Trivia

 * The Sulsuan Protectorate bears several similarities to the European Union.