I'll share what I assume is the oligarch perspective, since these guys have an interesting conundrum facing them:
On one hand, the current laws allow all weapons, and they'd likely want to retain that. In part, because that leaves them open to produce more weapons, in part because there are polities like Garda-Villis who are more advanced and thus we would need every advantage we can get if we were to fight them. On the other hand, very soon civilian ships are going to be ubiquitous and oligarchs don't want their investments destroyed by a stray vessel with a nuke.
In the political sense there's an additional problem in that to the oligarchs this rules of war convention defangs Home more than it defangs Cassalon or Xyri. This leads to a more even powerbase within the neighboring systems, which is bad for the oligarchs who would want fuller control. However, they would want to have moral high ground because that would make the administration and integration of the neighboring systems easier. But, there's no moral high ground to be had because of the failure to prevent S'taxu burn.
Where does that leave the oligarchs? Ideally, they'd want to lean on our official doctrine, which is 'Peace Though Strength'. Alas, that's impossible. Our ship-building capabilities won't match those of our southern neighbors. To compound the issue, the HSWS is in itself problematic, in that the conventional buildup of HSWS leaves them with more power to dictate Home's policies. What's the alternative? Private armies with clandestine weapons research? Expensive, and not easy to hide. Mercenaries? Tempting, but unpredictable.
No easy choices for our ruling class.
On one hand, the current laws allow all weapons, and they'd likely want to retain that. In part, because that leaves them open to produce more weapons, in part because there are polities like Garda-Villis who are more advanced and thus we would need every advantage we can get if we were to fight them. On the other hand, very soon civilian ships are going to be ubiquitous and oligarchs don't want their investments destroyed by a stray vessel with a nuke.
In the political sense there's an additional problem in that to the oligarchs this rules of war convention defangs Home more than it defangs Cassalon or Xyri. This leads to a more even powerbase within the neighboring systems, which is bad for the oligarchs who would want fuller control. However, they would want to have moral high ground because that would make the administration and integration of the neighboring systems easier. But, there's no moral high ground to be had because of the failure to prevent S'taxu burn.
Where does that leave the oligarchs? Ideally, they'd want to lean on our official doctrine, which is 'Peace Though Strength'. Alas, that's impossible. Our ship-building capabilities won't match those of our southern neighbors. To compound the issue, the HSWS is in itself problematic, in that the conventional buildup of HSWS leaves them with more power to dictate Home's policies. What's the alternative? Private armies with clandestine weapons research? Expensive, and not easy to hide. Mercenaries? Tempting, but unpredictable.
No easy choices for our ruling class.
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