Foreign Relations of Belhavia
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Introduction
The foreign relations of the Empire of Belhavia are the responsibility of His Majesty's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (known alternatively as His Majesty's Foreign Ministry), which is currently headed by Foreign Minister Daniel Nobelstein.
The Empire, as of January 2016, is the third largest economy in the world by nominal GDP according to the World Council. In addition to its economic strength, Belhavia possesses an advanced military and global force projection.
The Imperial Government in Provisa pursues a strategy of principled stability and shared prosperity by promoting self government and free market capitalism. This has pitted it against the few remaining leftist powers left in the globe, who oppose Belhavia's strongly-pushed Anti-Communist Project. Belhavia advocates neoliberalism, minarchism, and free markets, and this ideological aim is a key determinant of its relationships with other world nations.
World geopolitics also shape Belhavian foreign policy. Since 2009, the rise of the RCO and the Empire's continued inclusion as a member-state of the CDI since 1993 heavily influence foreign relations; likewise, Belhavia views itself as a leader of the Free World and a successful minarchy, and frequently opposes nations it regards as so-called "rogue states".
Despite certain ideological considerations, pure national interests also guide policy moves such as the protection of the extensive overseas territories of the Empire, the strength of constitutional monarchism and opposition to republicanism, and promotion of national sovereignty for important domestic ideological, sociocultural, and other internal objectives by governments such as social conservatism so as to safeguard Belhavian legislation to the same effect.
Special Relationships
United Republic of Emmeria
Belhavia and Emmeria developed a special relationship in the early 1950s falling the overthrow of the Galarian Autocracy amid the escalation of the Cold War between the capitalist- and representative government-oriented Free World and the Communist bloc led by the Otterup Pact. This close geopolitical alliance was cemented in the 1980s when Conservative President Julian Settas and Emmerian President Ziya became their respective nations' commander-in-chiefs and pursued similar foreign and domestic policies; both were neoliberals and presided over the so-called Neoliberal Revolution in the 1980s across the world that was characterized by the election of conservative, free market-oriented, anti-communist leaders throughout nations in Free Pardes.
The Belhavian-Emmerian relationship includes a bilateral military alliance as well as a military alliance through the CDI, advanced and tightly-coordinated intelligence communities, shared popular culture and cultural symbols, close economic ties, and strong personal relationships between both countries' leaders regardless of the presidential administration or political party in power.
Former Western Confederacy
Western States (1755 - 2014)
The Belhavian-Westerner relationship has its origins in the emigration of several thousand Orthodox Jews from Belhavia in the 1710s - 1740s, following a liberal monarchy that sought to move away from some traditional Jewish customs. As such, many Western Jews view Belhavia as their spiritual homeland. Due to this extensive and intimate ethnic and religious ties, once the Western Confederacy secured its independence from the Kingdom of Belfras, the two nations developed a close geopolitical relationship that has lasted to the current day.
Belhavia and the Western States have a military alliance through bilateral and CDI treaties, closely-coordinated intelligence communities, strong economic ties and interdependence, especially in finance, and a longstanding personal relationship between both governments.
Western market states (2014 - present)
Despite the dissolution of the Western confederal government in late 2014, the subsequent Western market states all in large part retained favorable diplomatic and geopolitical ties to Belhavia by the various states' governings boards of directors.
Union of Westonaria
Since the 1980s, Belhavia has been considered Westonaria's geopolitical patron in world affairs and geopolitics. These ties date back to Westonaria's founding in 1800, where the new government secured lines of credit from Belhavian banks and over the course of the 19th century, a small but growing Jewish community developed within Westonaria's white society.
Following a series of Cold War-era conflicts in South Ashizwe, Belhavia and Westonaria had increasingly close geopolitical, ethnic, and diplomatic ties, and by the late 1980s South Ashizwean international analysts dubbed Belhavia Westonaria's "patron" and "geopolitical defender" against a world increasingly hostile and aggressive against Westonaria's racialist regime.
Allies and Close Friends
Unified Tippercommon Republics
The relationship between Tippercommon and Belhavia date more than two centuries since Tippercommon gained independence from the Grand Ulthrannic Empire in 1779. As the two largest democracies in Taveria who share liberal values and two of the six largest economies in the world, Belhavia and Tippercommon have had a positive bilateral relationship for the better part of the past 230 years. As members of the Southern Partnership Commerce Initiative, each is the other's largest regional trading partner. The two nations share authority over security and defense in much of eastern Taveria, with agreements over early warning defense, underwater sound surveillance, and nuclear defense. The two states share political sovereignty over the condominium Ayton-Shelvay and has since 1893.
While both nations are led by classically liberal parties, public opinion in Tippercommon is much more socially liberal. While much of the Unity Party's policy is minarchist, it is much more liberal and secular than Belhavia's Conservative Party with the UTR public largely supporting its system of social safety nets and entitlements.
UTR-Belhavian relations have largely been positive, except for a cold drop in the early-to-mid 20th century due to the Galarian Autocracy and UTR's geopolitical Ulthrannic ties, leading to clashes such as the Second Shelvay War. However, by the 1940s and 1950s, with the looming and escalating Cold War, the UTR and Belhavia became close again, leading to such close bilateral relations that during the UTR's brief conflict in Hyperion in 1986, the UTR requested Belhavian troops from Ayton-Shelvay to assist UTR forces, a request the Empire granted.
Commonwealth of Arthurista
The relationship between Arthurista and Belhavia came into being in the 16th century when the world's sea lanes were being mapped and established by merchants and explorers from the western and southern regions of the world. Some Jewish merchants settled in Arthurista and became established as nobility and mercantile leaders, and played a role in the Constitution War. Officially, diplomatic contacts were cemented in 1652 after the establishment of the Kingdom of Belhavia.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, leading Arthuristan classical liberal political thinkers had a significant impact on Belhavian intellectual and political thought. The two powers remained major trade partners in the intervening centuries. As the "Great Game" took off, both nations became geopolitical allies and strengthened economic and military ties. Belhavia sent aid in the form of men and materiel to aid Arthurista's victorious Viceroy's War with Ulthrannia.
Relations chilled during the Galarian era when General Galarian explicitly allied with, and substantially aided, the fascist National State in the Great Fascist War between 1940 and 1945. Relations improved immediately after Galarian's ouster in mid-1945 and the emergence of a post-Galarian liberal political order more amenable to Arthuristan sensibilities, but bitterness and anger from the wartime role the Empire played remained an underlying point of tension between the two powers. This ended during the Leibniz-MacDonalds détente in early 1956, normalizing relations between the two powers in recognition of shared geopolitical interests and the escalation of the Cold War as well as the establishment of the World Council, supported by both nations. Since then, a longstanding personal relationship has developed between both heads of government in each nation.
By the early 1970s, both powers witnessed greater economic interdependence and integration due to globalization that was sweeping the world. This was reinforced in the 1980s when both had neoliberal governments that implemented programs of privatizations, deregulation, and tax relief. Both are leaders in the Free World (although analysts have noted Arthurista takes more of a 'liberal white knight' role while Belhavia plays a quieter, but strong mediator role) and joined the CDI together in 1993, in addition to a bilateral military alliance and coordinated intelligence-sharing program.
Kingdom of Belfras
Belhavian-Belfrasian relations date back to the 17th century, when the Empire began to interact more with the Belfrasian world and Western world in particular. Many Belhavian immigrants who came westward arrived in the Kingdom's territory in the modern-day Western Confederacy, and quickly established mercantile, diplomatic, and ethnic links to Belfras proper by the late 18th century.
Between 1715 (following the conclusion of the Great Southern War that led to Belhavia's emergence as a colonial power) and the 1950s (when Belfras decolonized), the two powers were friendly and often allied in the so-called "Great Game" in the Far East, where the two powers were joined with the Empire of Ulthrannia in a contest for colonial territories. However, at times, the two countries clashed as competitors for new lands to settle or seize in colonial wars.
Following the collapse of the Galarian autocracy and the rise of the Cold war in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Empire and the Kingdom grew closer and developed more economic, political, and military ties. Currently, the two nations are allied through the CDI as well as sharing a bilateral defense pact. They maintain a close, favorable geopolitical relationship.
Tule
Dacia
Eaglelander Republic
Basilene Empire
Principality of Canaan
Empire of Temuair
Cordial and Neutral Relations
Austrasian Riche
Grand Duchy of Nijdeland
Federal Republic of Karinzgrad
Complicated Relationships
Rodarion
The Rodar-Belhavian geopolitical relationship has been described by prominent foreign policy thinkers as "perhaps the most interesting bilateral relations between two leading world powers." The relationship has ebbed and flowed over the centuries, with both nations being at times friendly and allied, and at others, hostile and bitter foes.
The relationship between the two nations began in the late Middle Ages when the Belhavian people were migrating to their now-home in the Global South. Along the way, many settled in Rodarion, where they became wealthy merchants and financiers.
At the start of the 20th century, Belhavia and Rodarion maintained warm relations and close trade ties, but grew apart over shared domestic political radicalism at home, including concurrent fascist activism that was salient in both countries' internal politics. The low-water mark was in the 1930s, when Belhavian fascists sent aid to Rodarian fascists, who were engaging in an entrenched insurgency against the Romulan Church authorities. However, Rodarion's longest-serving political party, the National Catholic Party, used observations and lessons from the short-lived Galarian Autocracy to govern Rodarion in a more authoritarian-nationalist direction. Relations collapsed when both nations almost went to war during the Rodar-Belhavian Crisis of 1970-1.
In the late 20th century during the Late Cold War, Rodar-Belhavian relations dramatically reversed course, leading to a high-watershed moment of shared friendship, productive geopolitical consulting, and allied anti-communist efforts during the Neoliberal Revolution of the 1980s and bonding between Belhavian President Julian Settas and Rodarian leaders Consul Corneliu Dobrițoiu and Pope Benedict XII. This honeymoon of good feelings lasted throughout the 1980s and 1990s, though by the early 1990s, tensions emerged as Dobrițoiu's successor, Nicolae Ponta, centralized state power in Rodarion and restricted political and civil freedoms.
The early 2000s saw cordial relations and expansion in trade volume between the two powers as each had more liberal governments in power (a NLP government in Rodarion and a Liberal Democratic president, Garret Holleran, in Belhavia); however, by the mid-2000s, Rodarion's role in creating WECA (2001 - 2009) and its later successor, the Romula Cooperation Organization (2009 - present), perceived to be explicitly anti-CDI and hostile to a Belhavian- and Emmerian-led Free World, chilled the famously collegial Rodar-Belhavian geopolitical relationship.
For much of the last 13 years, the relationship has alternated between brief moments of positive, productive relations to longer periods of lukewarm and chilly feelings, mainly over RCO-CDI clashes and recent developments, such as the Borgorian Crisis, and Rodarion's increasing authoritarian rule at home and growing military and geopolitical force projection abroad. In President Eli Goldman's second-term, relations have improved substantially although lingering disagreements remain.