United Northern Congress (created 2018)

The United Northern Congress (UNC) is an intergovernmental economic and military alliance between 10 countries, all of which are located in the northern hemisphere of CivClassics, and was formed on the 3rd of August 2018. The UNC operates under a system of collective defense whereby its individual member states agree to mutual defense in response to any attack by any external party.

The United Northern Congress prides itself on the democratic values on which it was founded, the Congress is comprised of a voting delegation from each contracting party from which all votes, congressional or charter amendments, are decided by unanimous vote by national leaders. The UNC was originally founded by three nations, soon to be joined by seven other sovereign entities.

The United Northern Congress operates on a system of collective diplomacy, with each contracting party placing their trust in an elected spokesperson. The spokesperson is the orator of the UNC, speaking on behalf of all contracted parties.

History
It is generally accepted that the foundations of the UNC began as an economic and defensive alliance between the Federal Republic of Bloom and the then Principality of Gabon. On the latter's incorporation into the Grand Duchy of Varkonia the treaty between themselves and Bloom was upheld by the government of Varkonia, whom using their good relations with Nevrast and SPQR floated the idea of a joint treaty utilising the alliance with Bloom as a pretext.

On the third of August 2018, the treaty was negotiated and signed by the sovereign states of Varkonia, Nevrast and SPQR with Kaiserreich and Bloom expressing their support and becoming signatories in the following fortnight.

Late 2018
During September the following nation states of Kaltsburg, Tvtopia and Westmore were admitted on the 6th, 11th and 21st respectively, to the growing family of nations.

The winter months of 2018 for the United Northern Congress were quiet, fulfilling its purpose of a defensive alliance comprised of mostly builder-centric countries, infrastructure, embassies and joint projects relating to defense were built between the contracting members. The diplomatic outlook of the UNC was at this time quite separate in contrast to the functions of the current UNC, drama was on the low side and there were no issues internally. Around this time, both Westmore and Kaiserreich became further intertwined with The Grand Duchy Varkonia, becoming a province of the duchy and a protectorate respectively. Westmore relinquished their UNC vote as of becoming a province however Kasierreich kept theirs until the reformation of the protectorate on the 24th of April 2019.

In late december, after a period of inactivity, Kaltsburg granted SPQR the eastern claims of their nation, formally creating the administrative territories of the Kingdom of Kaltsburg within the SPQR. Kaltsburg later had a resurgence of activity in their independent territory of the Principality of Kaltsburg located below the Grand Duchy of Varkonia. Kaltsburg retained their congressional vote until the UNC reform on the 1st of May 2019.

Early 2019
In the beginning of 2019, the internal activity of the UNC picked up with the admission of Gensokyo on January 21st and the SPQR border crisis beginning in late February. In March, the charter was modified to appoint a spokesperson to handle diplomatic affairs on behalf of the organisation, a response to the handling of the prior SPQR border crisis.

2019 Charter Reform
In late april, it was agreed that the bureaucracy of unanimous voting between nine nations was becoming sluggish in regards to responding to diplomatic proposals and treaties. It was noted that waiting extra days to finish crucial votes could reflect badly on the alliance and thus the charter was rewritten, taking into considerations the concerns of every contracting party. The new charter established 6 core principles and the separation of member & observer states and their voting capabilities. The reform expanded on the concept of collective diplomacy, further specifying the role of the elected Alliance Spokesperson and their abilities when negotiating and being the orator of the UNC. The charter was signed into effect on May 1st and all prior principle states became signatories of the reform.

Admissions
On the 24th of March, Nyasaland was admitted to the Congress, taking the signatory count up to nine.

Following the charter reform on May 1st, Corvus was formally accepted as a member state and on May 7th, Iria was unanimously approved to become an observer state of the UNC.

Diplomatic Activities
Prior to the public announcement of the UNC in early September the diplomatic stance of the Congress was mostly isolationist and would stay that way until the first major incident in March with the SPQR border crisis, after which, with the addition of the spokesperson, the alliance became a neutral and outspoken bloc in local and international diplomacy.

SPQR Border Crisis
In mid February, Hallow, on behalf of the North Axis Treaty Organisation (NATO) contacted SPQR privately for comment on suspected Mirian combatants using the UNC border with NATO as an area to advance and retreat safely into as part of the on-going NATO-Mir war. Hallow had surmised that Mir maintained a bunker within the territories of SPQR and accused UNC inaction as silent support in the war.

Due to commitments unrelating to civclassics, NovaCeasar the National Leader representing SPQR only brought the concerns to the Congress' attention in the days leading up to march. The contracting parties were swift to reach a conclusion to their discussion on the matter and it was decided to commit to establishing their neutrality in the ongoing conflict and publicly announce this stance to the international community. As of March 2nd, the UNC unanimously approved a statement of neutrality which was shortly posted.

Alongside the announcement of neutrality, it was agreed internally to dispatch a party to the SPQR-Hallow border to investigate the claims brought forward by NATO and to assess the situation at the border in a way that could not be done at home. The party was comprised of citizens, government officials and leaders of Varkonia, Bloom and Gensokyo. The goals of the expedition were to remove any foreign entities, people or blocks from either side from the territories of the UNC with the priority being neutralising the Mirian bunker suspected to exist in the area. The investigation concluded with the results being published publicly to the international community with a post on restoring the peace to SPQR.

Summary
Although the affirmation of neutrality was met with mixed responses due to its seeming lack of alliance action on the matter, the restoration of peace was met with a positive reaction from outsiders and constructive diplomatic avenues with both NATO and Mir. Both sides of the conflict volunteered their snitch networks in the region much to the gratitude of the United Northern Congress. The border region was subsequently snitched and further monitored by the UNC as part of the collective defensive policy.

This situation led to further discussions internally on the issue of collective diplomacy and amendments were made to establish and clarify the alliance's position on diplomatic matters.

Icenian Diplomatic Incident
In late June, tensions between New Sovia and Icenia culminated in a Reddit postexposing Icenian President, ChrisChrispie for participating in the obby bombing of New Verda (Nyasaland) and contained screenshots alleging his support for retaliation attacks against the UNC member in future. On the day of the post, protests led by and mostly consisting of New Sovians littered the streets of Icenia with the attacks on icenian citizens with the subsequent pearling of Pirater by Lil_wayne. Prior to these incidents, however, the present Spokesperson, BritishWanderer took an unarmed visit to Icenia to observe the protests and to visit the Varkonian shop. The Spokesperson was accompanied by four UNC geared fighters who were there to ensure the safety of the Spokesperson as is the unwritten policy for when visiting foreign nations.

During the confusion of the protests and observations by the UNC, an Icenian by Lil_wayne took it upon himself to attack the Spokesperson, pearling him in the process. The accompanying UNC fighters launched pursuit of Lil_wayne and eventually captured and pearled him, freeing BritishWanderer in the process. [Video of the event] This event initially sent ripples through the -, - and internationally with many being taken aback by the random attack on an unarmoured civilian, especially that of the Spokesperson of the UNC. The response for the UNC internally was the shock of an unprecedented attack on one of their own.

Summary
Although initially a shock, the event mostly simmered into general memery and jokes about the situation. ChrisChrispie did, however, reiterate that BritishWanderer was always welcome in Icenia and apologised for the event. Lil_wayne was also given a light sentence by the UNC with the context of the event in mind.

Alliance Spokesperson
The introduction of Alliance Spokesperson is regarded as one of the largest changes in comparison to the UNC's inception. The Spokesperson has the written responsibility to "Post updates, announcements and statements regarding the UNC on public forums and shall be the orator of the concentrated positions of the National Leaders" The spokesperson is implored to not carry their own ideals or biases in their role as it is their responsibility to speak for all contracting parties and to form a robust and cohesive diplomatic outlook on their behalf.

Externally the Spokesperson acts as an ambassador, with the ability to reach out to foreign nations, conferring with foreign leaders on behalf of the UNC; with the Spokesperson internally being responsible for holding regular meetings on current events, ensuring that alliance votes go smoothly and generally being the curator of any public or UNC-wide information. The Spokesperson has generally become a more involved figure over time, with many of the responsibilities being assumed as time has passed.

The Alliance Spokesperson is elected by a majority vote of all members of the alliance. The spokesperson during this time, BritishWanderer, oversaw the introduction of the Archduchy of Nyasaland into the UNC, assisted in the diplomatic responses to the Sovian and Icenian situations and ended with his term culminating in the charter reform of which he was one of the authors.