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Uti possidetis


Ramirus Maximus

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"White peace" has been used on Planet Bob in an infantile form for some time now. Alliances which cannot bring themselves to simply surrender (and thus end whatever war they are in), try to weasle out by asking for a white peace. Other times, the side which is winning will attempt to appear magnanimous by offering a white peace, which they also think is the same as ending the war.

Both sides in such an arrangement are dumbing down terms from the other universe (OOC: the real world) for use here on Planet Bob. The plain fact is that white peace is not peace at all. In fact, it is merely an armistice which is never followed up on.

To drive this point home with an example from the current situation; TOOL and Sparta are currently still at war. TOOL never surrendered to Sparta, Sparta never surrendered to TOOL, there were no negotiations for peace, only a "white peace", which as stated above is no peace at all, but merely a perpetual state of war with no battles. There are many other examples from current and historical conflicts on Planet Bob, so don't seize on this one point and ignore the rest.

Why is this important for Planet Bob, you ask?

Because if we're going to have pretend-politics, we should at least pretend to also recognize terminology correctly.

Also it would be fascinating, instead of the same boring old "peace terms" and "white peace" and "decom this and that", to have defined endings, defined winners, defined losers, and not this vague mish-mash of stupidiy that has pervaded so-called alliance "politics" here since the beginning of time (OOC: since CN started).

tl;dr - You're doing it wrong, stop.

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I never liked the choice of the name "Karma" simply because i knew our side would not actually give the hegemony what was coming to them.

I dont exactly agree with the OP, but i can see your point. Without a clear surrender stating that they are defeated, alliances aren't really ending the war.

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I never liked the choice of the name "Karma" simply because i knew our side would not actually give the hegemony what was coming to them.

I dont exactly agree with the OP, but i can see your point. Without a clear surrender stating that they are defeated, alliances aren't really ending the war.

In retrospect "Mercy" might have been more fitting.

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I think he's saying that the terms should be something like "TOOL surrenders to Sparta and admits defeat" instead of everyone just calling it a white peace.

Is it not Sparta's sovereign right to agree to any peace terms they choose to? If they wish to sign a peace treaty that does not either side officially surrendering, who are you to tell them not to?

-Bama

EDIT: That's directed at the OP, not you.

Edited by BamaBuc
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I think he's saying that the terms should be something like "TOOL surrenders to Sparta and admits defeat" instead of everyone just calling it a white peace.

That would clearly define the losers and winners of a battle, but that's about it. An admittance of defeat or lack thereof does not have an effect on whether or not peace is valid.

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The last time I checked, alliances determine whether or not they are at war. I don't think they need your help in telling them when conflict has and has not come to an end.

Also, are you really trying to claim that every peace that has come without terms is the product of somebody weasling out of something? Or somebody's PR stunt to appear fair and merciful? Can't victors simply inflict damage on the battlefield, and leave it at that? I find it very hard to believe that every "white peace" given so far has been a farce.

Edited by savethecheerleader
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Perhaps I'm wrong, as I never try to suggest I know what Ram is talking about, but I believe his point was that the term "White Peace" here, is far different from the term "White Peace" in the old world (ooc - Earth). Therefore, I think he's basically saying, stop calling it white peace if it's not truly a white peace. The reason behind this is in "White Peace" everything goes back to the way it was before the war. However in this case, we are giving "Uti possidetis" where each side keeps whatever it got during the war. Then again, I've lost myself many a times trying to keep up with Ram, so I'll let him elaborate further.

Edited by HeraclesTheGreat
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A treaty between two powers which officially declares the war over is not the same as simply ending hostilities.

I'm saying that regardless of whether you think white peace means peace, it just doesn't. It's a perpetual state of war.

It's not that terms need to be set, or reps demanded, or apologies, or anything else you people have assumed.

It's that the phrase "white peace" doesn't mean what you think it means, nothing more.

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A treaty between two powers which officially declares the war over is not the same as simply ending hostilities.

I'm saying that regardless of whether you think white peace means peace, it just doesn't. It's a perpetual state of war.

It's not that terms need to be set, or reps demanded, or apologies, or anything else you people have assumed.

It's that the phrase "white peace" doesn't mean what you think it means, nothing more.

The "white peace = war" thing still eludes me. If two alliances do not consider themselves to be at war with one another, they are not at war.

-Bama

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Well, white peace is really just the shorthand term people are using to describe the recent peace agreements. I don't think that the official wordings of these actually used the term. So, people mistakenly using the term are wrong, but your argument doesn't really affect the official status of the alliances involved.

edit: Strike that, I just read some of them- the term is indeed used in the announcements. Well don't I feel silly.

In any case, it's really just a matter of people misusing the term- I don't think it affects their status, as all parties have recognized a cessation of hostilities. In most cases, the surrendering party is specified, and in all of them they defeated alliance is required to remain neutral for the remainder of the war. So, victors have been defined, and terms handed out. I don't see any problem beyond the misuse of a term.

Edited by savethecheerleader
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Well, white peace is really just the shorthand term people are using to describe the recent peace agreements. I don't think that the official wordings of these actually used the term. So, people mistakenly using the term are wrong, but your argument doesn't really affect the official status of the alliances involved.

edit: Strike that, I just read some of them- the term is indeed used in the announcements. Well don't I feel silly.

In any case, it's really just a matter of people misusing the term- I don't think it affects their status, as all parties have recognized a cessation of hostilities. In most cases, the surrendering party is specified, and in all of them they defeated alliance is required to remain neutral for the remainder of the war. So, victors have been defined, and terms handed out. I don't see any problem beyond the misuse of a term.

One could argue that since the term is generally understood to mean what they're talking about, then in this sphere (OOC: CyberNations) it has an additional definition. It happens all the times with words, after all. Do you think "ball" meant "pitch outside the strike zone" before baseball? This is all a silly semantic issue that has no real bearing on anything.

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Considering there were terms on both sides of the Sparta/TOOL agreement that's a pretty terrible example. On a semantic level I suppose it's possible that "white peace" doesn't mean what it's normally used as in the OOC realm. But here, when both parties agree to cease hostilities and cease fighting, the war is over, whether there are official terms or not, and regardless of what it's called. Trying to be overly semantical about that is rather pointless.

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So, can I still keep calling it an armistice then? I don't think the term "white peace" is actually in our joint announcement if that matters at all.

edit: guess not, seems that's supposed to only be temporary to discuss terms.

Edited by William Blake
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But here, when both parties agree to cease hostilities and cease fighting, the war is over, whether there are official terms or not, and regardless of what it's called.
Terms are irrelevant, terminology is not. Wars are over when there is an official peace treaty, which is usually the culmination of a surrender.

Simply ceasing hostilities doesn't end a war. OOC example: The United States has been at war with North Korea for 59 years.

If you want an end to war, but you don't want "terms", simply sign a peace treaty that doesn't include any terms.

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Terms are irrelevant, terminology is not. Wars are over when there is an official peace treaty, which is usually the culmination of a surrender.

Simply ceasing hostilities doesn't end a war. OOC example: The United States has been at war with North Korea for 59 years.

If you want an end to war, but you don't want "terms", simply sign a peace treaty that doesn't include any terms.

TOOL and Sparta (And the others) did sign terms. I'd say that it wasn't a white peace because there were actual stipulations and whatnot, but there was a signed agreement that their war was over.

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TOOL and Sparta (And the others) did sign terms. I'd say that it wasn't a white peace because there were actual stipulations and whatnot, but there was a signed agreement that their war was over.

Precisely. This is the case with all of the peace declarations so far. Some of them may have erroneously used the term "white peace". That is all. They came to a formal agreement that a state of war no longer existed between their alliances- call the agreement whatever you want, that's peace.

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Precisely. This is the case with all of the peace declarations so far. Some of them may have erroneously used the term "white peace". That is all. They came to a formal agreement that a state of war no longer existed between their alliances- call the agreement whatever you want, that's peace.

Frankly, I'm opposed to the use of words at all, in formal context. We should just draw pictures. Grub probably still has some crayons left over from the last war.

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TOOL and Sparta (And the others) did sign terms. I'd say that it wasn't a white peace because there were actual stipulations and whatnot, but there was a signed agreement that their war was over.
A white peace has nothing to do with stipulations, but you're right that a signed agreement counts as a peace treaty.
Precisely. This is the case with all of the peace declarations so far. Some of them may have erroneously used the term "white peace". That is all. They came to a formal agreement that a state of war no longer existed between their alliances- call the agreement whatever you want, that's peace.
Exactly.

People simply have no grasp of the terminology they're using. This is to be expected when people play pretend-geopolitics, but then everyone goes around acting like their alliance announcements are right, true and proper and they feel like very important people. People need to stop getting all big-in-the-britches.

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