Greetings, ACP.
As you probably have heard, SWAT declared war on us because apparently we ‘broke’ the treaty, and so they ‘nullified’ it and have now declared war. Flipmoo has already explained why SWAT’s declaration of war is invalid , but as this is the second time in a month that a treaty has been broken (DW broke one just a few weeks before), I’d like to take a second to explore how treaties work.
Often people are comparing treaties in armies to treaties in real life. Of course, treaties in real life are easily breakable. Two leaders of states may have treaties, but in reality that treaty is simply a piece of paper that is meaningless if the two leaders do not honor their word. In that case, treaties are simply words. They do not have any significance unless promises are kept. It is for this reason that people often say that treaties, in armies, should also be meaningless.
However, there is a fundamental difference to how armies in real life work and how armies in Club Penguin work that means that this is not the case. Club Penguin armies have no physical property that you can seize. Instead, Club Penguin armies work within a system of rules that are here due to universal consensus:
- Armies own servers that form their nation.
- Armies can seize servers through invasions and defenses.
- In the case where the invasion is valid, and the army has a larger size and superior tactics to the defending army, then the invading army can take the server.
The key point here, is that invasions have to be valid. Several factors can hamper an invasion’s validity; for example, an invasion is invalid if it is not given with 24 hours notification, or if the invading army has no servers. Of course, you could choose to ignore these rules and schedule an invasion in three hours, log on and claim you win the server. However, your invasion is technically invalid and since you’re not ‘physically’ seizing anything, unlike in real life, you have to adhere to accepted rules and norms of the community.
The same applies with treaties. Of course, there’s no stopping you once you choose to invade a server, but again the issue is whether or not that invasion is valid. If a set of leaders agree in a treaty that invasions declared in the duration of a non-aggression pact will be invalid, then you have no choice but to adhere to those terms. As in this game server ownership is based on community-wide rules and regulations, not on physical ownership, by agreeing beforehand that your invasions will be invalid, you have automatically committed to the community that your invasions will be invalid. There’s no changing that.
And so this is why even if SWAT decides to invade our entire nation, their invasions will be invalid until our non-aggression pact expires. This game, with a lack of any real physical ownership or violence, must be played within its rules, and it is words that rule supreme. Words matter, and they are lasting. Once you confirm a treaty, and the treaty is not broken, you cannot just declare it off. SWAT has agreed that invasions between now and the end of the treaty is to be nullified. They shall be so.
I reiterate the ACP’s position: SWAT’s explanation for why ACP, supposedly, broke the treaty is completely illogical and false, and as such they cannot break the treaty. Treaties in armies work differently from the real world, as in a game we must operate within rules and regulations, and as such SWAT’s invasions are null and invalid.
Splasher99
Temporary ACP Third in Command
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