Intergalactic Summit

No statue yet, but in due time!

Realistically, if you look at the example of the Empire and the Federation, the Empire seems to limit Reclamation those who appear* substantially weaker than it. The implications should be an obvious exercise for the reader.

*That the Jove turned out to be distinctly not weaker doesn't change this fact.

Laerise, your irrelevant shrieking has never been more amusing.

Whilst it's always a very real possibility the Amarr may wish to pursue their religious reclaiming against the Caldari State in the future they are not doing so right this moment. As such it is to the present advantage of Caldari corporate interests to continue pursuing mutually advantageous business arrangements with the Empire, especially when Caldari corporations have an advantageous position in Imperial markets in comparison to Federal or Republic business interests.

I find it particularly foolish to expend Caldari blood and treasure to assist a Republic that has continuously remained ambivalent or even outright hostile to the Caldari people, have made the pursuit of business by Caldari corporations difficult if not almost impossible within their borders and in short expect much while offering little in return. Not as foolish I find as basing today's decisions and interests on an as yet to transpire hypothetical scenario.

The only time I see any assistance being lent to the Matari, is if the Empire acts in such a fashion as to be detrimental to the interests of the Caldari State and the majority of its corporations. Until such time arises I do not think all the moral aggrandizement in the cluster is going to cause the State as a whole to intercede in the affairs of either the Republic or Empire.

There is a difference between common sense and hysterical alarmism.

A quick glance on his corp ticker would have saved you a lot of reading, hysterical alarmism is Electus Mataris forte.

I think my point has just been adequately made for me.

In the last ten years alone, no less than three asteroids and one comet of significant size have been diverted from eventual collision courses with inhabited worlds. If the philosophy of the agencies responsible for such interplanetary gardening had been "well, yes, it's going to hit eventually but it's not hitting right now." then all four would have made the news rather than being routine non-events.

It is strategically senseless to ignore a known threat, it is politically foolhardy to make friendly with a known threat and It is economically stupid to invest in a known threat.

Let's be clear on this: the Minmatar are just first on the list. We may be last on the list, but that's a bit like being the third man lined up for the block. You just get to hear the sound of axe hitting wood twice before it's your turn to feel it.

There's no hyperbole here, no hysterics, no alarmism, just a simple statement of fact - it is in the State's best interest that a Reclaiming never happen. If it does happen, it is in the State's best interest that it should fail, preferably calamitously and without breaking the Minmatar in the process.

Fortunately, I think the scenario is unlikely. As has been said, the Amarr have historically preferred to Reclaim technologically and militarily inferior populations. They're not, after all, stupid, and I think they know full well that if they DID manage to conquer the Minmatar, the Republic's death throes would do more harm to them than all those new slaves could repair in a hundred generations.

Not that I endorse bloodshed on that kind of scale, but if you're going down, go down biting and eye-gouging.

It's in the Empire's best interests that its expeditionary fleet not be scattered in a trail of burning wrecks from Citadel to Forge. Don't expect your paladins to fare any better than the Missionaries - but at least the Missionaries get a fair hearing.

You appear to have my missed my point that while it's well known that the Amarr religion will always endorse the reclaiming (Indeed, an Empire is always predicated on the need for military conquest irrespective of the pious platitudes used to justify it) I do not believe such a fact means we cannot pursue mutual advantage and business relationships with them until such time the balance of power and our own interests in the State require different options and contingency actions to be enacted.

Certainly, an Imperial Reclaiming against the Republic would upset the status quo and if it is launched then re-assessments will no doubt be made in the corporate boardrooms as to how such a military action may or may not affect the interests of the Caldari State. However such a decision will be reached I doubt it will be to give either the Empire or a Republic a free pass that does not benefit the State politically, economically or militarily.

In fact, I would say we in the State have little more to do than ensure that the Empire and Republic bleed each other out to the bone if they decide to enter into an escalation of war and simply permit them to destroy each other to our own advantage. Why pick either side when there exist ways to support both and thus strengthen our own position?

Gesakaarin-haani, are you proposing a superhuman balancing act where we play two intractable adversaries off against one another and fleece both sides for every ISK they can spare and then some?

Maybe if we were The Broker, sure. But given that he's the kind of fairy story that parents tell their kids if they want them to grow up to become daytraders, let's assume that our capacity to play the field is only human. What then?

We can either make a lot of money off the Amarr... until they decide to roll over us, enslave us and plunder it all back. Or we can make a little money off the Minmatar in a relationship that strengthens us both in the long term and which neither will feel much inclined to break.

That old glibness "the brightest flame burns quickest" springs to mind. a long-term contract for small returns per month with minimal or no risk is vastly better than a Faustian contract for short-term gains at huge expense in the end.

The State's best interests are not and never have been served with the Empire. At most we would want, a short-term exploitation until a more workable long-term solution could be found.

Maybe we're still in the short-term solution right now, but we need to get out of it at some point if only because eventually the demon is going to come to collect, and I very much doubt we could best it by ourselves.