EVE General Discussion

Hypothetical situation:

Suppose a Ni-Kunni exile and an Intaki movie producer got together and produced a low budget movie within the Gallente Federation.

That film was highly critical of the Amarrian belief system, but it received little attention inside the Federation. After all, Gallente citizens found other films far more entertaining.

Unfortunately, media being what it is, a few months later this production spread to the backwards Amarrian Empire.
The average citizen in Amarr found it highly offensive. Amarrian clerics encouraged this outrage and encouraged their more militant bretheren to take to the streets.

On some worlds, prodded by their religious leaders, the violence went completely out of hand. Militant groups took advantage of the chaos, resulting in Gallente diplomats and civilians being brutally murdered in cold blood, their bodies paraded on the nightly newsholo. It was unclear if the local authorities were complicit, or merely powerless to stop the violence. Further, many in the Federation believe that Amarrian outrage over the movie was simply a pretext to justify the hostile attacks.

The weak-willed, inexperienced Gallente President, already found negligent in providing armed security for his diplomats in a hostile environment - compounded the error by releasing a statement apologizing to the Amarrian empire, and condemning the movie producer. This, however contradicts the long-standing Gallente Federation tradition of free speech - and further weakens his own political standing within the Federation.

How do you resolve this situation?

A) Draft legislation that clamps down on free speech within the Gallente Federation? Find a pretext to prosecute the film producer in an attempt to placate the Amarrian militants? Publicly denounce the leadership of your ally, the Minmatar Republic, in order to generate goodwill with the Amarrians? Of course, this runs the risk being your government being rapidly removed from power by your own people for betraying national principals......

B) Recall your diplomats, allow the unrest to burn itself out, quietly try to reestablish foreign embassies at a later date, even if that action would be interpreted as indecisive, weak or a political retreat?

C) Reinforce defenses at foreign embassies, reiterate Gallentean values and notify Amarrian leadership that further attacks are unacceptable and may lead to harsh consequences, up to and including orbital bombardment? This of course, risks further escalation of the conflict, and the Gallente Federation is still recovering from previous large-scale military operations around New Eden.

[b]D) Intergalactic Thermonuclear WAR????? or, "Press the button, Max!"