Thread:Zillafire101/@comment-4960835-20160524105213/@comment-25309944-20160913174402

Right, but I'm not sure I agree that that's the takeaway. For the system to be "exploited" is actually quite normal. Everyone within the system by default is trying to navigate international laws and systems in order to reconcile them with their goals and fulfill their interests. A big determinant of whether a state is a status quo or revanchist actor is whether that's an easy or difficult process.

Nor is international law antithetical to "stopping Norman Page." N.P. wants war for his own purposes. Stopping N.P. means avoiding war. The Covenant is essentially set up in a way that war is impossible. Essentially, international law provides the answer to stopping N.P. at the outset. N.P. can try to engage in the same shadow campaign as the Triumvirate has for the last eight-odd years, to maneuver into a position where war between status quo and revisionist powers is (1) drawn out, (2) winnable, but I'm not sure he'll meet with much success. What's most likely is that the Covenant is able to contain him indefinitely until the balance of power changes.

As I mentioned, the contentions of morality vs. peace, of revisionism vs. status quo, are built into the system and will always be there. They're just a little bit more complicated than just "law vs. morality," and "the law can be abused by people with malign intent," which "shows the weakness of the law and how it can be improved." The subjectivity of what constitutes malign intent, and the fact that the protections of the law are what makes peace and galactic society possible, makes the whole equation a bit more complicated. If you want to make a story along the lines of morality vs. peace, revisionism vs. status quo, I strongly encourage you to do so, and I'll happily participate. But since those elements are already baked into the system and we have all of the necessary pieces (France, the Xonexi powers, and the Waptoria as status quo powers, the Triumvirate as revisionist powers, as well as potential conflicts between the UPD's orange and blue morality and the restrictions of the system), I'm not sure it's necessary to create a whole new set of fictions shaped solely by the demands of making a point, tailored specifically to provide an impossible counterfactual.