Icosahedron
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Correction - there's no Prime Directive in the OTU...
And as Hans suggests, even that is open to question.
Disasters and Rescues
- Thread starter DaveChase
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Correction - there's no Prime Directive in the OTU...
And as Hans suggests, even that is open to question.
Correction - there's no Prime Directive in the OTU...
And as Hans suggests, even that is open to question.
Not sure that I agree with you Hans and Isosahedron...there are directives but no Prime Directive in the OTU. Scouts are merely one policy tool that the Imperium may choose to invoke or not. Scouts may even be in the forefront of establishing relations for a Trade Mission.
kafka47 said:
Given the age and stability of the Imperium within the OTU, I seriously doubt that there are many 'first contact' types of encounters. Therefore, I'd say that the Scouts merely gather intelligence for use by a Diplomatic branch of the Imperium and perhaps even provide security from the 'Scout's Operations Office; Security Branch'
...... unless its determined that a show of force would work better, in which case the Navy and Marines would be used. (Great White Fleet?)
But then again, the Imperium does seem to follow, to some degree, Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine where diplomacy is concerned....
...Big Stick ideology, "...send in the Marines..", and all that.
There aren't may of them left by the Classic Era, but in the early days of the Imperium there must have been hundreds. That highly desirable colonization goals like Vanejen and Algine and Ruie were left in the hands of their low-tech indigenous populations show that the Imperium must have been protecting them against colonization efforts by stellar tech settlers.
My take is that the Scouts evaluated pre-Stellar worlds on a case by case basis to determine whether they could survive contact with the interstellar community. Although there was no Imperial edict about it -- no Prime Directive -- there was a practice of interdicting worlds below TL5 and not interdicting worlds at TL5 and up. A practice that might be departed from at the discretion of the commander of the survey.
Once interdicted, a world would be reevaluated every century or two and contacted if they had advanced to a point where they could tolerate contact.
The Great White Fleet was employed against an agressive pocket empire with Viking ethics -- in other words a threat to interstellar peace.
Hans
Actually, the Great White Fleet was employed in 1908 to demonstrate America's ability to project military power anywhere in the world. It was shown particularly to Japan after the Battle of Tsushima to show a willingness and ability to protect American interests in the Pacific, namely Hawaii and the Philippines. He was showing his "Big Stick".
It led directly to the Root-Takahira Agreement. ( Which, along with some secret dealings, apparently led to a war in the Pacific some 3 decades later ).
I hope the OTU version you mention is a nuanced account of diplomatic maneuvering, and not just a bland stereotype like many things in the OTU.
It does show, however, my idea that the Imperium does follow Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. In such a case, I can easily imagine the Finlandization of a good number of polities. I can just as easily imagine the Imperium using the Bush Doctrine.
Back to the original topic, I suppose disasters and rescues can be a very nice 'excuse' to project military power into a place while showing who its good to be friends with.
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