The Containment Pact

The Containment Pact was the crowning jewel of the St. Lawrence conference, announced in April of 109 PA during the Tolkeen victory celebrations. It provides for open trade between all signatories, a critical concession on the highly protectionist Coalition’s part, and for limited intelligence-sharing. Its most important provisions, however, are military.

Inspired by the clear and present danger of Atlantean raids and colonization, the three signatories, which are in effect the only known human naval powers, agreed to resist Splugorth expansion specifically and non-human expansion generally, and pledged mutual support in both offensive and defensive wars. The Coalition has already begun to consider joint operations in Canada with their former state, Quebec, but the Quebecois mentality is still primarily defensive, and of the three main signatories, only Quebec is actively menaced by Splugorth colonization.

Secret provisions in the treaty provide for mapping and exploration, and for the eradication of the alien arms-dealers called the Naruni. The first fruits of the Pact are the personnel-sharing agreements of 109 PA, which say that small detachments of up to company size may be shared between the partners, in order to familiarize each country with the others’ security challenges.

Primary Signatories
The three primary signatories of the Containment Pact are the Coalition States of America, Free Quebec, and the New German Republic. These three form an unofficial council to mediate between the secondary signatories, none of whom have near the strength to match even one of the primaries. It is exceptionally unlikely that any future nation that joins the alliance will advance to this status; the determining factor thus far has been naval performance, and no other human nation or kingdom is in the same league as these three.

New Signatories
Shortly after the Containment Pact was conceived, the Coalition invited the minor states of Upper Michigan, the Manistique Imperium and Ishpeming, or Northern Gun, to transfer their mutual treaty obligations to the new pact. There was significant resistance, because the Michigan kingdoms were, and remain, very leery of becoming involved in a war on another continent when there are significant problems on the Great Lakes. However, the Foreign Office made it increasingly clear that failure to transfer the obligations would be viewed as an end to the mutual security arrangements already enjoyed by the Coalition, Ishpeming, and Manistique. Reluctantly, the Michigan kingdoms agreed, and became signatories shortly after the treaty was made public.

The South American republics of Colombia and Cordoba signed as soon as they heard word that the treaty existed – they view Triax and Northern Gun as potential sources of arms imports, a chance to equip themselves with the newest weapons for their own regional wars. Because they are distant from all of the other signatories and each other, the major powers indulged them. From the Coalition’s perspective, this gives them a potential naval base on the southern side of the Gulf of Mexico, a key edge in the battle against piracy in this region.