Background[]
The Flexibility, or Paperless Doctrine, is a Seven Kingdoms policy published on March 6, 2011. Written by Tenages and Mikey, it spells out SK's idea for a new world, without the clusterfuck of a massive treaty web. The doctrine hammers at the flaws of treaties, deriding them as unnecessary relics from a bygone age, and states the Seven Kingdoms's general policy of not signing any military treaties. Announced at the same time as the New Pacific Orders similar "Doctrine of Autonomy" statement, the document attacks the old view of treaties as a necessity, provides a view of an alternative, more fluid political scene. Together with NPO's missive, the statement created a conversation on Terra about the how politics should be approached and the best way to move forward. The doctrine currently remains the active policy of the Seven Kingdoms.
Text of the Doctrine[]
Preamble[]
Citizens of Terra, The Seven Kingdoms comes before you today with a new proposal, a radical break from tradition in the lands beyond the sea we once called home. We come to express a rejection of the line of thinking which states that for every friendship, there must be a treaty. We come to usher in a treaty-less world, where friendships are not solidified by a piece of paper, but by the force of the relationship. What is in a treaty? A formal acknowledgment of a relationship which, in any other form, would still be as fruitful. We believe that friendship exists outside of a document and that the ties that bind alliances transcend paper. A treaty seeks to put demands, limitations, and restrictions on the relationship that mutual hard work and admiration have built. When two alliances trust each other, they do not need a treaty - they know that they have each others backs. And if there is no trust, then a treaty is an empty shell, a faltering effort to bind the unwilling. Without the relationship, a treaty is meaningless. With the relationship, a treaty is unneeded. Much like an arms race, treaties beget treaties which then beget blocs. Where does this path lead? To a stagnant, moribund world where no one can move for fear of the avalanche they will be bringing down upon their heads. We have seen this in the Old world, we do not wish to see it in the New. A treaty, rather than a ring of protection, is a chain; a chain to ensure that, should there ever be a falling out, should the alliances change, should the relationship wither, the two alliances must defend each other regardless. If the relationship were healthy, defense would be forthcoming without a treaty. Treaties become a web whose interconnected strands separate alliances from friends and suck them into unwanted wars defending people they don’t like who undertook actions of which they disapprove. The Seven Kingdoms has a view of a different, better world. A paperless world, where alliances exist without treaties. A world where friends can call on each others aid without the need for an empty document. In this world, alliances will not be forced into corners by documents they never signed. The whims of the powerful or strategically centered will not force them to choose between two friends. Sudden changes in leadership and drastic alterations in policy will not suck an unsuspecting “ally” into the whirlpool of destruction. Ours is a world of flexibility and of true friendship where relationships not only do not require treaties, but have the maturity to recognize that they are unneeded in the first place. What the Seven Kingdoms calls for, what the world needs, is a putting aside of the old ways and a taking up of the new. We call for a political rebirth, a foreign policy Revolution. Today we must all stand together and throw off the chains and strictures that would bind us to a deeply flawed and failed paradigm; for the good of our world and ourselves, we must embrace the new. We at the Seven Kingdoms ask all who have hope for the future and who prefer freedom and flexibility to stagnation and sluggishness to stand with us. To that end, on this the Sixth Day of March, Two-Thousand and Twelve, the Seven Kingdoms announces the following doctrine to all the alliances and citizens of Terra:
Policy Statement[]
We affirm the bedrock principle that we are sovereign over ourselves, and that none have power or authority over us. We acknowledge that all alliances are likewise sovereign over themselves. We reject the flawed model of the treaty web and the ruin it will bring, preferring instead to trust in our compatriots. We reject the restraints and outside influence placed on our relationships and foreign policy by such treaties. We declare that it will be the general policy of the Seven Kingdoms to not sign military treaties. We attack and defend when and whom we see fit. We befriend whom we wish, when we wish. We welcome all alliances to engage with us as peers, regardless of their foreign policy position on this or other subjects. We respect all, but recognize none as our better.
Signed for the Seven Kingdoms, March 6th, 2012
