World Council

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World Council
  • Rodarian:Consiglio Mondiale
    Yiddish:
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    Modern Hebrew:
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    Latin:Concilio Oecumenico
    Ulthrannic:Consejo Mundial
World Council HeadquartersArthurista Loweport (International territory)
Official languagesEnglish
Rodarian
Yiddish
Modern Hebrew
Latin
Ulthrannic
TypeIntergovernmental organization
Membership
Leaders
• President of the World Council
Template:Country data Tippercommon Aleister Diarmuid
• Chief of the Grand Tribunal
Template:Country data Prestonia Akio Okamoto
Establishment
• Charter signed
25 March 1956 (1956-03-25)
• Establishment as an organization
12 September 1956 (1956-09-12)

The World Council (WC) is an international organization that was formed in 1956 as a forum to prevent nuclear apocalypse at the beginning of the Cold War with the development of viable nuclear weapons and competing geopolitical blocs. Although that remains its primary mandate, since the 1970s and 1980s, the World Council has informally morphed into a broader platform for global cooperation, inter-state dialogue, and consensus in world affairs.

The World Council Headquarters reside in a sovereign international parcel of land under the Council's own direct control in the heart of Loweport, Arthurista. Besides its primary objective of preventing a nuclear Armageddon through diplomacy, the World Council membership has amended the charter to include such mandates as maintaining international peace and security, policing the civilized exercise of conventional war among nations, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict.

The Council has two primary organs: the World Council itself as an assembly constituent body, and the Grand Tribunal. The Grand Tribunal functions as a high court of last resort and deals as an international arbiter explicitly with matters of nuclear warfare, proliferation, and threats to humanity and the environment enforced by the power of sanctions, trade embargoes, and other forms of economic police powers such as asset liquidity controls.

The global body is notable for its limited reach and mission. Included in numerous provisions of its charter as well as additional resolutions codified in the 1980s establish the principle of state sovereignty within historical civilized norms as supreme and explicitly rejects the World Council as either a form of supranational legal-political body or a type of world government.

Evaluations of the global body span the spectrum from support and praise to criticism and disillusionment. It is composed of 60 nations, encompassing nearly all of the world's sovereign nation-states.

History

Origins

The Twenty Years' Wars of the 1930s and 1940s, including the civil wars in Arthurista, in Ulthrannia, and in the Western states, as well as broad regional conflicts including the Great Eastern War and the Belhavian-Livrichese War, fundamentally transformed the world. Military technology, ideologies, longstanding governments, and an industrial global economy gave way to disruptive forces.

Two global powers, Ulthrannia in the Near East, and Prestonia in the Far East, had been knocked from their geopolitical perches. The emergence in 1949 of Otterup Pact, an alliance of newfound Communist governments that came into existence either before or right after the mid-20th century wars, was challenging the capitalist world system, sparking the Cold War.

The development of nuclear weapons and their apocalyptic potential sparked a movement called the "International Congress for Nuclear Control," later to be called the "Movement for a World Council."

Founding

The "Movement for a World Council" quickly won support among elites in Arthurista, Emmeria, Belfras, Belhavia, Tarsas, as well as the leading governments of the Communist bloc who feared that the chief anticommunist and capitalist powers would unilaterally utilize nuclear strikes against them in surprise assaults.

On April 17th, 1953, in a speech to the Parliament of Arthurista, Arthuristan Prime Minister Hamish MacDonalds called on the world to "create an international forum to stave off the jittery, impulsive hitting of a button that will bring global nuclear holocaust, and where an international congress or some such can deliberate and allow cooler heads to prevail and protect all of us from irrational oblivion over mere ideological differences in political economy."

The MacDonalds speech sparked broader interest across the early Cold War divide to control nuclear weapons and provide an impartial body to hash out concerns before accidental nuclear apocalypse occurred during a future geopolitical crisis. On July 10th, 1953, President Yavin Leibniz of Belhavia joined MacDonald's call in a major press conference. This would lead to the famous Arthuro-Belhavian détente on the eve of the World Council Charter signing in early 1956.

This was followed a few days later by affirmations of support by both the Rodarian Catholic and Skanderan Catholic Churches, bridging their historical divide.

By December 1954, all major world Anticommunist bloc powers as well as the leaders of the Communist bloc had come to the table, and negotiations stretched for over 15 months. In February 1955 and January 1956, negotiations broke off when either the Communist or Anticommunist bloc walked out after unsuccessful discussions. However, by early March 1956 all sides had agreed to and produced a tentative Charter.

On March 25th, 1956, the Charter for a World Council was signed by 28 nation-states. The Grand Tribunal was established concurrently and was headed by the Non-aligned power of Prestonia with equally-balanced Anticommunist and Communist caucuses. The Anticommunist caucus included Belfras, Emmeria, Belhavia, and Arthurista, and the Communist caucus included the DSRA, Estovnia, Tule, and Tuzbekistan.

1950s and 1960s

Early Cold War nuclear crises

Winter War

Nuclear non-proliferation efforts

Failed pacifist efforts

1970s and 1980s

State sovereignty debates

Resolution 32 crisis

Neoliberal Revolution impact

1990s and 2000s

Anti-apartheid debates

End of the Cold War

CDI-MP Tensions

Grand Tribunal Composition Changes

2010s

Structure

World Council

Grand Tribunal

Membership

Group of 60

Notable Non-Members

Dacia

Following the conclusion of the South Ashizwe Border War in 1993 and the renewed anti-apartheid debates in the Council, the political winds within the global body changed as a resolution sponsored by jointly by the DSRA and Arthurista sought to force an end to the apartheid regimes in Westonaria and Dacia. In reaction to the likely passage of that resolution, the Westonarian and Dacian governments withdrew from the World Council.

As a geopolitical protégé of Tarsas and with strong connections to leading global powers such as Rodarion, Belhavia, and the CRE, Dacia has generally been protected from World Council ire.

Westonaria

Following the conclusion of the South Ashizwe Border War in 1993 and the renewed anti-apartheid debates in the Council, the political winds within the global body changed as a resolution sponsored by jointly by the DSRA and Arthurista sought to force an end to the apartheid regimes in Westonaria and Dacia. In reaction to the likely passage of that resolution, the Westonarian and Dacian governments withdrew from the World Council.

As a geopolitical protégé of Belhavia and with strong connections to leading global powers such as Rodarion, Tarsas, and the CRE, Westonaria has been strongly protected from the World Council's wrath.

Minor Non-members

Disputed membership

Albiya

Objectives

Avoiding nuclear holocaust

Policing conventional warfare

Maintaining international peace and security

Providing humanitarian relief

Funding

Reactions, criticism, and commentary

Historical

Contemporary