And so, what are we, the small and middle powers of the mapp, to think when we hear that this Nexus is to be dissolved and replaced by three organisations? None of us are involved in the two major replacements: the triumverate comprised of Marcusburg, Lindsholm and Gorditas - an effective superstate in the old Soviet tradition, and a second group composed of the triumverate and two other nations whose purpose is to share scientific knowledge. The rest of us get lumped into a general free trade group where we lack tariffs and barriers to entry so the stronger economic powers can do what they will with our domestic economies (making a tidy profit in so doing) and then have no responsibility whatsoever to defend us because the "new world order" lacks any commitments to uphold collective security.

Although, there is the obscure Lindsholm Doctrine and a "sovereignty promise" from Marcusburg - nice documents written on paper to guarantee that each nation is worthy of sovereignty and security, but they are ultimately worthless without the institutional might and the guns necessary to enforce them. For instance, I could write on a piece of paper: "Everyone who reads this will get $1,000,000 from me," and sign my name. I could then take that paper to a Notary Public and have him certify it and then visit a priest so that he might bless the piece of paper. But, despite all this officialness and pomp and ceremony, you would be no closer to getting $1 million from me than you are now. The truth is that these new institutions serve only the interests of the great powers because they have the economic freedoms to use their economic might to profit heavily without having to use their military might to protect those of us who are less mighty. In other words, they have all the opportunities with none of the incumbent responsibility.

So I believe that there needs to be a countering force. If great powers are no longer interested in maintaining stability on the mapp, that does not prevent the small and middle powers from doing so. I would like to suggest that those of us not included in the decision making form a group that could defend our economic and military interests. My philosophy is that "peace is prosperity." In other words, we need peace to allow us to focus our efforts on construction, improvement and growth. Once we have that, we need to create opportunities to do new things to grow further. Free trade will allow our economies to grow, but we must ensure that we benefit from the freeness of trade - great powers should not be allowed to innundate our economies with their multinational corporations and pillage our domestic economies of our wealth. Furthermore, we must be secure. Insecurity leads to arms buildups - which are wasted resources because if the arms are not used it was pointless to buy them, and if they are used they will only be used to destroy and that is not productive. But small and middle powers cannot be anything but insecure without enforcable collective security. In other words, we need to band together to consolidate the strength of our militaries to both deter and fight off aggressors that might want to capture our land.

As small and middle powers we share similar circumstances. We lack the economic, political and military clout to push our weight around and so we often find ourselves cozying up to one of the great powers in order to get anything done. The only other alternative we have to assert ourselves is to invade someone else's territory in the hopes of conquering enough to make ourselves powerful. But, as we have seen in the cases of Kam and Hussein, that only leads to disaster. Therefore I propose that we discuss the formation of a small and middle power organisation to defend our common economic and military interests. Since the Nexus is now defunct, we have two choices - we can co-operate with each other to further our common goals, or we can go it alone. Given the realities of the mapp, I think the wise choice is obvious.

SENATUS POPULUSQUE JAREDIS (The Senate & People of Jared)