Code Geass - Locations - UFN Analysis

The United Federation of Nations: A coalition of nations from across the world formed with the sole purpose of liberating Britannian Areas. Ratified through the United States Charter, it identifies forty-six member states across the European Union, the Chinese Federation, and the Middle East. The forty-seventh nation is the United States of Japan, headquartered on Horai Island. As per Article 17 of the charter, the participating nations delegate all military matters to the Order of the Black Knights, whose check on power is governed by the UFN's Congressional council. Beyond that, member states are free to govern themselves in any way they see fit, provided the institutions of a democratic government are preserved.

Synopsis 1: The United Federation of Nations borrows heavily from the ideals of the in-series European Union, but retains several unique qualities. While the EU of the series relied on individualized military forces (much like real life), the UFN centralized military power to prevent distrust among the member states. And unlike the real-world EU, no mention is made of utilizing a central economic and/or regulatory policy; in fact, the opposite seems to be the case.

The UFN, then, would be something of an inverse to the in-series EU, more analogous to the real-world United Nations. This is important, as we can use the series as a stepping stone to compare the differences between the United Nations and the real-world EU. As it would take too long to mention all branches of the UN, we'll focus on the main three. The charter of the United Nations can be found here for further reading.

The General Assembly: Consists of up to five representatives from each member nation. Serves as the primary deliberation group for matters regarding the structure of the UN charter. Can make recommendations to the UN Security Council or to individual member nations. The Congress of the UFN is the Code Geass equivalent of this.

EU Equivalent: The European Union equivalent would be the European Council, which has no legislative authority over its member nations (as such authority is granted to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers). This connection is important as it shows the UFN as being overwhelmingly limited in scope. The power is there to ensure international peace, but there is no real ability to promote social change or social progress.

The Security Council: Has the power to draft a military-humanitarian force in times of international crisis. Consists of fifteen member nations - five permanent, ten as selected every two years. The Code Geass equivalent would be the Order of the Black Knights.

EU Equivalent: Currently, there is no official military arm of the European Union; member states are free to staff their personal armed forces as they see fit. Par for the course, as this was a major element in the EU representation of the Code Geass series.

The Economic and Social Council: Prepares studies and makes recommendations to the General Assembly on topics of "international economic, social, cultural, educational, health, and related matters." A UFN equivalent was never truly established in the Code Geass series.

EU Equivalent: The European Commission, the Court of Auditors, and the European Central Bank all serve as arbiters to economic policy within the Union. The Commission implements the decisions of the two legislative arms, the court monitors the transactions, and the Bank regulates the supply of currency. The important thing to remember here is that these three institutions have far more spending authority than the United Nations ever will, as they can more directly control the resources of their member states than the United Nations can.

Synopsis 2: Based on the differences of the UN/UFN and the EU/EU (Geass), one thing becomes abundantly clear. The UN may (rather consistently) have more member nations, but it has far less power and authority compared to the EU. So what does this mean, and why should we care?

I would like to go back to the Horai Island article for a moment. The idea of creating an artificial island for human development contains much emphasis on humanitarian sentiment and international cooperation; but realistically, it would never come to fruition if spearheaded solely by the UN. It takes a noticeable degree of resource allocation/distribution and would require a "for the greater good" mentality, rather than an "if all members are in agreement" one.

The principles of the United Nations, and the related UFN, are idealistic yet fundamentally flawed. Expansion of the principles of the European Union would be the better approach to international policy, thus the expansion of its territory needs to be more closely examined. For more information on that topic, please refer to its dedicated article here.