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GWOT VII - Diplomatic Status of the California Republic
After the Second American Civil War (q.v.), the United States of America were no longer what they had been. Six states had formally left the Union and stayed out; others, while still members, were wracked by internal and/or external conflict. Others formed regional and even international alliances, notably with Canada and through Canada, NOHEDO (Northern Hemisphere Defense Organization).
The seven departures were Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Texas and California. Utah counterseceded after the Church of Latter Day Saints exacted considerable new concessions, including functional extraterritoriality for Church properties elsewhere in America and a form of diplomatic status for Church elders. The LDS and California fenced warily over the status of Mormons in California, as California would not grant the same concessions to anyone for any reason.
However, strong ties still existed between the 'Sinning Six' and the states they had left behind. These played out in a dizzying array of compacts, treaties, agreements, memorandums of understanding and informalities of Byzantine complexity.
An example of this can be seen with identifications and driver's licenses. All North American nations and territories respect each other's license plates and driver's licenses, although it would be a bold Californian who drove east of the Mississippi. However, a California ID is highly suspect in American territory, and an American passport essentially worthless in the California Republic. The old rule that one had to turn in a driver's license or ID to acquire a new one in a different state is so unworkable as to be a dead letter. Forgery of all credentials is common and databases are fragmentary. The CR no longer has access to USA driver's license information, and of course the USA cannot verify a CR post-Firecracker ID in any way. A market in secure governmental and corporate IDs has arisen. A Nevada ID means that the bearer has a lot of money, and that the identity is at least plausible. An Arizona ID is barely worth the plastic it is printed on; the Mexican matricular ID based on genealogy information is more widely accepted.
The Washington Trust Territory, faced with the wartime choice of remaining in America or joining Canada, chose neither. The 'Trust Territory' left the United States, giving up its seats in Congress and the protection of the United States Navy, and her own right to have a navy, in exchange for a treaty guaranteeing her boundaries and access to international shipping lanes and the use of both Seattle and Vancouver ports, protected by the Canadian Navy. The alternative was starvation due to the California blockade. This won California no friends in Seattle but ended the China War at a stroke. Eastern Washington aligned emotionally (if not exactly legally) with Idaho. In effect the Trust Territory ends at the mountain passes, and Spokane is at least informally a separate entity paying taxes to and getting the support of no one.
Oregon frankly allied with California, despite considerable tension over the status of the long-disputed 'Jefferson' counties blocking any attempt at merging with the Republic. However Oregon could be counted on to support California's naval ambitions, and no cargo flowed through Portland without California approval.
Texas functioned as an independent oil state in much the same way as the Gulf Oil States in the Middle East. To her considerable credit, Texas military forces, under the auspices of the United Nations, kept the peace from Florida to Kansas to northern New Mexico. Relations with California were queasy, especially as California was a nuclear power and Texas was not. The lack of a common border comforted both new powers.
Nevada became a corporate feudal state, a playground for the wealthy and a hell for indentured workers, analogous to the Gulf state of Dubai. The party cities of Reno and Las Vegas were brighter from above and darker from below. The border with California is frankly militarized, with Nevada patrols shooting to prevent unlawful entry and unauthorized escape alike. California's nuclear mines over the Sierra passes are not just to deter American aggression. Nevada's spigot control of both power and water forces California to take the long view with respect to Nevada fascism.
Arizona took a very different path. The "Arizona Miracle" freely accepted refugees from all over the world, but especially California and even China, and the aging population of retirees found itself mobilized to care for, feed, clothe, house and put to work in turn the shell shocked survivors of domestic conflict and international nuclear bombardment alike. The resulting nation was rich in moral goodness but poor in balance of trade, making up the difference in drug manufacture and end-of-life 'hospice settlements' in what had been resorts. California maintained strict border controls for incoming persons but allowed free trade and visaless passage for a final destination of Arizona. (Typically secured by a posted bond.) Phoenix is in the midst of an ultra high technology boom second only to Austin.
The California Republic was left sharing a land border with just one pre-Firecracker nation, Mexico.
California's lack of a land border with America was absolutely no accident; California operatives and her infamous Bear Force have provided training and arms to just about every anti-American revolt and rebellion in the world, in every quadrant of every hemisphere, with a fine disdain for political ideology and human rights alike. (cf Iowa, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Georgia, the Dakotas)
Mexico had at first decided to sit the Firecracker War out. Then American wartime planners had seen the capacity of Ensenada and started shipping military cargo and troops through Mexico with a complete disregard for national sovereignty. After the initial shock wore off, Mexico presented an ultimatum - no more troops or Mexico would fight. This was ignored, Mexico fought, and the resulting conflict shattered Southern California and much of southern New Mexico and Arizona alike. This also directly contributed to the secession of Texas, as Texan forces held the Rio Grande and deterred potential Mexican aggression against America on that front.
The rise of the California Republic caused a tentative cease fire to solidify on the California-Mexico border. In an ironic reversal of the pre-War situation, it was now Mexico that fought to keep out refugees, a civilized power on the border of failed cities such as San Diego with constant low level insurgency and warfare. After UN peacekeepers were withdrawn, California had to hold her own sovereignty against increasing pressure from the South while cleaning her own house internally.
However, Mexico continued to have a strong interest in her people no matter where they might be. In both the California Republic and in Arizona, the Mexican government is very active in humanitarian relief, diplomatic protection for their nationals (anyone with Mexican ancestry) and allegedly, cartel involved smuggling of persons, weapons and drugs. The cartels continue to be a major factor on both sides of the border, patrolling openly as "auxiliary troops" on the Mexican side, and disavowed as "bandits" if caught in California.
The Native American tribes took the opportunity created by the general Civil War to assert their own sovereignty and 'encourage' both rebel states and America to honor historical treaties. California's position on this was particularly enlightened, recognizing the sovereignty of Native tribes within California lands essentially on request. Not all states nor the United States viewed this issue the same way, and tensions continue, particularly in Oklahoma.
The California Republic (hereafter CR) is extremely selective in its participation in non-governmental and multinational organizations.
CR is a member of NOHEDO but is not a successor member of any other American defense alliance.
CR's credit is secured by a consortium of European banks, largely Swiss. CR will not even speak to the World Bank.
CR is a member of the World Health Organization. However, the CR membership in WHO is run by and through the Office of the Surgeon General. In CR governmental and medical practice, the Surgeon General has all the functions of all American pre-War health agencies, with additional command of all CR military medical assets. The Surgeon General is therefore the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture (inspections), FDA, DEA, CDC, VA, SSI healthcare etc for California.
CR is not a member of the United Nations. However, CR has contributed troops in kind to peacekeeping operations under the auspices of UNNAPD, the United Nations North American Peacekeeping Detachment. That these operations are sometimes a cover for Bear Force is quietly understood by all.
There is a complicated relationship between France and the CR that the rest of the world does not even begin to start to understand. French troops have been seen in formed units within the CR, and CR troops have been deployed both within and alongside (in their own detachments) the French Foreign Legion in Africa. The French aerospace and nuclear power industries are extremely active in California and even Arizona. For example, Aerospatale has built an attack helicopter factory in Palmdale, CA and its product sells widely in the American West - even to America. When the CR cannot openly operate a consulate or embassy, the French Embassy supports a California Interests Section, with the notable exception of Washington DC.
CR has only recently started to support embassies in other nations. Previously, CR diplomatic interests were represented by Charge d'Affaires or Ministers Without Portfolio, statuses with only nominal diplomatic protections.
CR now has either an embassy or a consulate in Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico City, Ottawa, London, Paris, New Delhi and Moscow. CR would like to establish a consulate in Beijing and negotiations for this are underway.
United States interests in the CR are represented by the Austrian Embassy, American Interests Section, in Sacramento, CA. The USA still refuses to recognize the CR and vice versa. A recent non binding vote on reunification in the CR failed by a two thirds majority.
CR consular officers and diplomats are nominated to a qualification pool by the California State Assembly and approved by the California State Senate. They serve at the pleasure of the Governor, however, and it has happened more than once that a candidate vetted by Assembly and approved by Senate has been dismissed seconds later. The artificial mechanism of a "Governor's Endorsement" has been implemented to avoid such embarrassments in the future.
CR does not have a national airline. The California Air National Guard still operates limited flight service and operates logistics air bases at which the United States Air Force may, under strict supervision, operate unarmed cargo aircraft. (Byzantine…) However, a dizzying array of small passenger and cargo operators exist in the CR, ranging in size from hundred aircraft fleets to single plane and pilot owner operators.
One of many points of tension between the USA and the CR has to do with individually owed payments by the nearly bankrupt USA government for disability, Social Security, government and military pensions, etc. CR takes the position that any such owed prior to the Firecracker remain fully owed. USA takes the position that CR nationals by extinguishing their American citizenship have forfeited all benefits. In practice CR indemnifies its nationals for about 40% of what would have been USA benefits and charges this off against the USA claimed 'historical debt' for built infrastructure, with the notable exception of US military and VA benefits for American loyalists. Individual US states have decided to arbitrarily treat the CR as if it were a foreign country such as Costa Rica for payment of pensions. A retired US Army officer had best avoid the CR; but a retired Michigan police officer may find a considerably cheaper and even safer living in the CR than in his home state, at Michigan's willing expense.
At the present time, the cease fire on land and in the sky between the Six Sinners and the United States is holding.
However, the CR's Naval Militia (ships: RCS) and USN (ships: USS) routinely shoot at each other on the high seas, both on and under water. This is considered a normal everyday part of post Civil War life, and both nations follow the results of clashes as if they were sporting events, with loss of ships and crews part of the game. However, as neither nation moves cargoes under its own flags very much, and never in contested waters, the situation has not devolved into economic warfare. Most such clashes are in the Pacific and result from USN meddling in China and CR-NM efforts to shadow and interfere with 'inappropriate power projection from a past age."
The dreaded CR SDF, or Strategic Defense Force, holds itself aloof from these games and anything else that does not directly threaten the CR's national survival. But the SDF has missiles pointed at America from closer than any other foreign power has ever threatened, and no one on either side forgets this for even a moment.
Deep underwater, around the world, the USN still maintains her partly reloaded Trident fleet, the doomsday weapon that was so potent in the Firecracker War. Russia's Dead Hand communications missile doomsday system is a hypothetical. Trident ballistic missile nuclear submarines have killed over one hundred million people, even before you count San Francisco.
The Americans fear that the SDF is working on the problem of Trident.
The rest of the world fears that the SDF might not be working on the problem of Trident.
Deep, deep under the surface, the fact is simply this.
A new Cold War poker game, America versus everyone else, with the ante in megadeaths and the survival of humanity the stakes.
The California Republic is the wild card.
After the Second American Civil War (q.v.), the United States of America were no longer what they had been. Six states had formally left the Union and stayed out; others, while still members, were wracked by internal and/or external conflict. Others formed regional and even international alliances, notably with Canada and through Canada, NOHEDO (Northern Hemisphere Defense Organization).
The seven departures were Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Texas and California. Utah counterseceded after the Church of Latter Day Saints exacted considerable new concessions, including functional extraterritoriality for Church properties elsewhere in America and a form of diplomatic status for Church elders. The LDS and California fenced warily over the status of Mormons in California, as California would not grant the same concessions to anyone for any reason.
However, strong ties still existed between the 'Sinning Six' and the states they had left behind. These played out in a dizzying array of compacts, treaties, agreements, memorandums of understanding and informalities of Byzantine complexity.
An example of this can be seen with identifications and driver's licenses. All North American nations and territories respect each other's license plates and driver's licenses, although it would be a bold Californian who drove east of the Mississippi. However, a California ID is highly suspect in American territory, and an American passport essentially worthless in the California Republic. The old rule that one had to turn in a driver's license or ID to acquire a new one in a different state is so unworkable as to be a dead letter. Forgery of all credentials is common and databases are fragmentary. The CR no longer has access to USA driver's license information, and of course the USA cannot verify a CR post-Firecracker ID in any way. A market in secure governmental and corporate IDs has arisen. A Nevada ID means that the bearer has a lot of money, and that the identity is at least plausible. An Arizona ID is barely worth the plastic it is printed on; the Mexican matricular ID based on genealogy information is more widely accepted.
The Washington Trust Territory, faced with the wartime choice of remaining in America or joining Canada, chose neither. The 'Trust Territory' left the United States, giving up its seats in Congress and the protection of the United States Navy, and her own right to have a navy, in exchange for a treaty guaranteeing her boundaries and access to international shipping lanes and the use of both Seattle and Vancouver ports, protected by the Canadian Navy. The alternative was starvation due to the California blockade. This won California no friends in Seattle but ended the China War at a stroke. Eastern Washington aligned emotionally (if not exactly legally) with Idaho. In effect the Trust Territory ends at the mountain passes, and Spokane is at least informally a separate entity paying taxes to and getting the support of no one.
Oregon frankly allied with California, despite considerable tension over the status of the long-disputed 'Jefferson' counties blocking any attempt at merging with the Republic. However Oregon could be counted on to support California's naval ambitions, and no cargo flowed through Portland without California approval.
Texas functioned as an independent oil state in much the same way as the Gulf Oil States in the Middle East. To her considerable credit, Texas military forces, under the auspices of the United Nations, kept the peace from Florida to Kansas to northern New Mexico. Relations with California were queasy, especially as California was a nuclear power and Texas was not. The lack of a common border comforted both new powers.
Nevada became a corporate feudal state, a playground for the wealthy and a hell for indentured workers, analogous to the Gulf state of Dubai. The party cities of Reno and Las Vegas were brighter from above and darker from below. The border with California is frankly militarized, with Nevada patrols shooting to prevent unlawful entry and unauthorized escape alike. California's nuclear mines over the Sierra passes are not just to deter American aggression. Nevada's spigot control of both power and water forces California to take the long view with respect to Nevada fascism.
Arizona took a very different path. The "Arizona Miracle" freely accepted refugees from all over the world, but especially California and even China, and the aging population of retirees found itself mobilized to care for, feed, clothe, house and put to work in turn the shell shocked survivors of domestic conflict and international nuclear bombardment alike. The resulting nation was rich in moral goodness but poor in balance of trade, making up the difference in drug manufacture and end-of-life 'hospice settlements' in what had been resorts. California maintained strict border controls for incoming persons but allowed free trade and visaless passage for a final destination of Arizona. (Typically secured by a posted bond.) Phoenix is in the midst of an ultra high technology boom second only to Austin.
The California Republic was left sharing a land border with just one pre-Firecracker nation, Mexico.
California's lack of a land border with America was absolutely no accident; California operatives and her infamous Bear Force have provided training and arms to just about every anti-American revolt and rebellion in the world, in every quadrant of every hemisphere, with a fine disdain for political ideology and human rights alike. (cf Iowa, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Georgia, the Dakotas)
Mexico had at first decided to sit the Firecracker War out. Then American wartime planners had seen the capacity of Ensenada and started shipping military cargo and troops through Mexico with a complete disregard for national sovereignty. After the initial shock wore off, Mexico presented an ultimatum - no more troops or Mexico would fight. This was ignored, Mexico fought, and the resulting conflict shattered Southern California and much of southern New Mexico and Arizona alike. This also directly contributed to the secession of Texas, as Texan forces held the Rio Grande and deterred potential Mexican aggression against America on that front.
The rise of the California Republic caused a tentative cease fire to solidify on the California-Mexico border. In an ironic reversal of the pre-War situation, it was now Mexico that fought to keep out refugees, a civilized power on the border of failed cities such as San Diego with constant low level insurgency and warfare. After UN peacekeepers were withdrawn, California had to hold her own sovereignty against increasing pressure from the South while cleaning her own house internally.
However, Mexico continued to have a strong interest in her people no matter where they might be. In both the California Republic and in Arizona, the Mexican government is very active in humanitarian relief, diplomatic protection for their nationals (anyone with Mexican ancestry) and allegedly, cartel involved smuggling of persons, weapons and drugs. The cartels continue to be a major factor on both sides of the border, patrolling openly as "auxiliary troops" on the Mexican side, and disavowed as "bandits" if caught in California.
The Native American tribes took the opportunity created by the general Civil War to assert their own sovereignty and 'encourage' both rebel states and America to honor historical treaties. California's position on this was particularly enlightened, recognizing the sovereignty of Native tribes within California lands essentially on request. Not all states nor the United States viewed this issue the same way, and tensions continue, particularly in Oklahoma.
The California Republic (hereafter CR) is extremely selective in its participation in non-governmental and multinational organizations.
CR is a member of NOHEDO but is not a successor member of any other American defense alliance.
CR's credit is secured by a consortium of European banks, largely Swiss. CR will not even speak to the World Bank.
CR is a member of the World Health Organization. However, the CR membership in WHO is run by and through the Office of the Surgeon General. In CR governmental and medical practice, the Surgeon General has all the functions of all American pre-War health agencies, with additional command of all CR military medical assets. The Surgeon General is therefore the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture (inspections), FDA, DEA, CDC, VA, SSI healthcare etc for California.
CR is not a member of the United Nations. However, CR has contributed troops in kind to peacekeeping operations under the auspices of UNNAPD, the United Nations North American Peacekeeping Detachment. That these operations are sometimes a cover for Bear Force is quietly understood by all.
There is a complicated relationship between France and the CR that the rest of the world does not even begin to start to understand. French troops have been seen in formed units within the CR, and CR troops have been deployed both within and alongside (in their own detachments) the French Foreign Legion in Africa. The French aerospace and nuclear power industries are extremely active in California and even Arizona. For example, Aerospatale has built an attack helicopter factory in Palmdale, CA and its product sells widely in the American West - even to America. When the CR cannot openly operate a consulate or embassy, the French Embassy supports a California Interests Section, with the notable exception of Washington DC.
CR has only recently started to support embassies in other nations. Previously, CR diplomatic interests were represented by Charge d'Affaires or Ministers Without Portfolio, statuses with only nominal diplomatic protections.
CR now has either an embassy or a consulate in Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico City, Ottawa, London, Paris, New Delhi and Moscow. CR would like to establish a consulate in Beijing and negotiations for this are underway.
United States interests in the CR are represented by the Austrian Embassy, American Interests Section, in Sacramento, CA. The USA still refuses to recognize the CR and vice versa. A recent non binding vote on reunification in the CR failed by a two thirds majority.
CR consular officers and diplomats are nominated to a qualification pool by the California State Assembly and approved by the California State Senate. They serve at the pleasure of the Governor, however, and it has happened more than once that a candidate vetted by Assembly and approved by Senate has been dismissed seconds later. The artificial mechanism of a "Governor's Endorsement" has been implemented to avoid such embarrassments in the future.
CR does not have a national airline. The California Air National Guard still operates limited flight service and operates logistics air bases at which the United States Air Force may, under strict supervision, operate unarmed cargo aircraft. (Byzantine…) However, a dizzying array of small passenger and cargo operators exist in the CR, ranging in size from hundred aircraft fleets to single plane and pilot owner operators.
One of many points of tension between the USA and the CR has to do with individually owed payments by the nearly bankrupt USA government for disability, Social Security, government and military pensions, etc. CR takes the position that any such owed prior to the Firecracker remain fully owed. USA takes the position that CR nationals by extinguishing their American citizenship have forfeited all benefits. In practice CR indemnifies its nationals for about 40% of what would have been USA benefits and charges this off against the USA claimed 'historical debt' for built infrastructure, with the notable exception of US military and VA benefits for American loyalists. Individual US states have decided to arbitrarily treat the CR as if it were a foreign country such as Costa Rica for payment of pensions. A retired US Army officer had best avoid the CR; but a retired Michigan police officer may find a considerably cheaper and even safer living in the CR than in his home state, at Michigan's willing expense.
At the present time, the cease fire on land and in the sky between the Six Sinners and the United States is holding.
However, the CR's Naval Militia (ships: RCS) and USN (ships: USS) routinely shoot at each other on the high seas, both on and under water. This is considered a normal everyday part of post Civil War life, and both nations follow the results of clashes as if they were sporting events, with loss of ships and crews part of the game. However, as neither nation moves cargoes under its own flags very much, and never in contested waters, the situation has not devolved into economic warfare. Most such clashes are in the Pacific and result from USN meddling in China and CR-NM efforts to shadow and interfere with 'inappropriate power projection from a past age."
The dreaded CR SDF, or Strategic Defense Force, holds itself aloof from these games and anything else that does not directly threaten the CR's national survival. But the SDF has missiles pointed at America from closer than any other foreign power has ever threatened, and no one on either side forgets this for even a moment.
Deep underwater, around the world, the USN still maintains her partly reloaded Trident fleet, the doomsday weapon that was so potent in the Firecracker War. Russia's Dead Hand communications missile doomsday system is a hypothetical. Trident ballistic missile nuclear submarines have killed over one hundred million people, even before you count San Francisco.
The Americans fear that the SDF is working on the problem of Trident.
The rest of the world fears that the SDF might not be working on the problem of Trident.
Deep, deep under the surface, the fact is simply this.
A new Cold War poker game, America versus everyone else, with the ante in megadeaths and the survival of humanity the stakes.
The California Republic is the wild card.
