[Advisory Question] Intelligence Sharing in Treaties

[Mangegneithe]

Intelligence sharing is in pretty much every treaty we write. Every treaty, the wording is a little bit different, but it’s still there. What does it mean? How does TEP judge information to be applying to these clauses? Some of them specifically say what kind of information should be shared, but how do we judge that it applies to those contexts? What’s the legal procedure for releasing it? Could a citizen share information they deem relevant independently of the government? What if information that applies is delivered in a government capacity that is meant to be private? Would releasing it be considered leaking or even treason-espionage? What intelligence would apply to our delegate? Does this just mean proof that the delegate is planning something bad? Or proof someone is planning something bad that involves unseating the delegate? Are treaties applicable laws and, if so, would breaking the terms involve any legal action against the government or officials that refused to share the information? Or if they don’t keep the information confidential? Who decides who “needs to know” in a need to know basis? If challenged by an ally for breaking the treaty, how do we know if we did or not? What wording would make all this more clear? What does it mean to unduly compromise your source of information? On what circumstances would information shared by Allies be admissible in a trial? All the instances of intelligence sharing are below.

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2. Should either signatory possess intelligence pertinent to the safety and security of the other signatory they shall, in a timely manner, share it with the same, unless doing so would violate applicable laws, the terms of NationStates, or the terms of relevant communications platforms, or unduly compromise that signatories source or sources of information.

3. Aforementioned intelligence shall be delivered to the Delegate of The East Pacific or the World Assembly Delegates of the Alstroemerian Commonwealth respectively by the other signatory. Should the subject of intelligence concern the Delegate of The East Pacific, the intelligence shall be delivered to the Grand Vizier of the same. Should the subject of intelligence concern the a World Assembly Delegate of the Alstroemerian Commonwealth, the intelligence shall be delivered to the nation commonly known as Vandoosa.

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3. Signatories agree to provide each other intelligence, on a need-to-know basis, on the acts or intentions of any party engaging in military hostilities or any acts of subversion against the home region, territories, and/or legitimate government of either Signatory. This intelligence shall be shared with relevant security organization as laid out in the domestic laws of each region.

4. Signatories agree to keep any shared intelligence confidential unless doing so would violate applicable laws, or the terms of service for NationStates or said Signatory’s forum provider, or unduly compromise said Signatory’s sources of information.

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1. Should either signatory possess intelligence pertinent to the safety and security of the other signatory they shall, in a timely manner, share it with the same, unless doing so would violate applicable laws, the terms of NationStates, or the terms of relevant communications platforms, or unduly compromise that signatories source or sources of information.

2. Aforementioned intelligence shall be delivered to the Delegate of The East Pacific or the President of the Union of Democratic States respectively by the other signatory. Should the subject of intelligence concern the Delegate of The East Pacific, the intelligence shall be delivered to the Grand Vizier of the same. Should the subject of intelligence concern the President of the Union of Democratic States, the intelligence shall be delivered to the Vice President of the same.

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1. Signatories of this treaty are obligated to exchange intel or any other security-related information, regarding one another’s crucial security of the region, legitimate government or the community.

2. This intel may not be publicated or spread without explicit consent from the other signatory. This clause does not apply when the intel is required to be shared to another region by another active treaty.

3. Any intel regarding The East Pacific shall be directly handed to the Delegate of The East Pacific. Shall the intel be related to the Delegate, The Free Nations Region shall hand it to Grand Vizier or any other Vizier.

4. Any intel regarding The Free Nations Region shall be directly handed to the President of The Free Nations Region. Shall the intel be related to the President, The East Pacific shall hand it to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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1. In the event that a signatory comes across intelligence that pertains to a threat to the other signatory’s regional security or to any act being undertaken by a party engaging in military hostilities with a signatory, said intelligence shall be shared between signatories.

2. Intelligence shall be shared to the Viziers of the East Pacific or the President of Thaecia for the respective signatory.

3. Both signatories shall agree to keep shared intelligence confidential unless doing so violates the domestic laws of each signatory, the terms of service for any regional service used by each signatory, or the terms of service of NationStates.

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Section 2. Signatories agree to provide each other intelligence, on a need-to-know basis, on the acts or intentions of any party engaging in military hostilities, a coup d’état, or any acts of subversion against the home region and legitimate government of either Signatory. This intelligence shall be shared with relevant security organization as laid out in the domestic laws of each region.

Section 3. Signatories agree to keep any shared intelligence confidential unless doing so would violate applicable laws, or the terms of service for NationStates or said signatory’s forum provider, or unduly compromise said signatory’s sources of information.

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Section 2. Signatories shall:

. . .

(b) provide to each other intelligence, on a need-to-know basis, on any of the hostilities or actions, or potential hostilities or actions, including by third parties, as listed under Section I of this Article, unless doing so would violate applicable laws, or the terms of service for NationStates or said Signatory’s forum provider, or unduly compromise said signatory’s sources of information. If this intelligence relates to actions of the other Signatory’s Delegate, then it will be provided to the Viziers of The East Pacific or the Chief Executive of 10000 Islands;

(c) keep any shared intelligence confidential on a need-to-know basis within the signatory’s government and make public intelligence on terms mutually agreed upon by the other signatory.

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1. The signatories shall provide to their counterpart’s Delegate any intelligence related to the other signatory’s in-game or off-site security, unless the signatory in possession of such intelligence reasonably believes that doing so would violate applicable laws, or violate the terms of service for NationStates or said signatory’s forum provider, or unduly compromise said signatory’s sources of information. If this intelligence relates to actions of the other signatory’s Delegate, then it will be provided to the Vice Delegate for Balder, or to the Viziers for The East Pacific.

2. The signatories will keep confidential all intelligence provided to them under this Section, unless the other signatory consents to the release.

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1. The signatories agree to inform their counterpart’s sitting Delegate of threats to the counterpart’s in-game or off-site security immediately upon learning of it and/or being given reasons to be reasonably suspicious. If the Delegate is the problematic element, the signatory with intelligence shall contact the Viziers of The East Pacific or the Senate of the New Pacific Order respectively.

2. The signatories agree that shared intelligence will not be passed on to external parties (with external being defined as parties who are not members of the signatory governments), or any parties having conflicting interests with the signatories’ intent and scope as to this treaty via non-signatory regions unless explicitly permitted by the government of the signatory in possession of mentioned intelligence.

2.1 This clause may be reevaluated in the instance that the intelligence being shared is withheld from a treaty ally to which the other signatory is pledged if it concerns their regional security and community safety. This is defined as knowledge or evidence of a coup attempt, awareness or support of an infiltration, or awareness of the presence of a dangerous entity in the region which has been withheld from the treaty ally in question.

3. The signatories agree that the sharing of relevant intelligence dossiers is beneficial to both parties and shall seek to follow through on requests for them, and shall seek to inform each other where deemed appropriate, whether spontaneous or on request.

4. The signatories agree not to promote, encourage, authorize, or engage in espionage against their counterpart signatory. If either of the signatories receives knowledge of espionage being committed against their counterpart by a member of their region or a foreign region, they shall immediately inform the other signatory.

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(b) The East Pacific and Europeia each shall provide information to the other if such information is pertinent to the other region’s security or well-being, or otherwise upon the other’s reasonable request, unless the party in possession of such information reasonably believes that providing that information might violate applicable laws or contravene the terms of service for NationStates or a regional communications platform, or when revealing that information would unduly compromise that party’s source(s) of information. Both signatories shall endeavor to reveal as much as possible in such situations, but not more than they can under laws, terms of service or the need to protect sources.

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1. The signatories will share any information relevant to the security of the other signatories, provided it does not directly threaten their own security. This includes information relating to both regional and forum security.

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1. The signatories shall provide to their counterpart’s Delegate any intelligence related to the other signatory’s in-game or off-site security, unless the signatory in possession of such intelligence reasonably believes that doing so would violate applicable laws, or violate the terms of service for NationStates or said signatory’s forum provider, or unduly compromise said signatory’s sources of information. If this intelligence relates to actions of the other signatory’s Delegate, then it will be provided to the Security Council for The North Pacific, or to the Viziers for The East Pacific.

2. The signatories will keep confidential all intelligence provided to them under this Section, unless the other signatory consents to the release.

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[Mangegneithe]

I recuse myself on the grounds of VE VILL ASK ZE QUESTIONS

[Zukchiva]

Was asked by Aiv to post my own stuff here as a former delegate so please, no one murder me D:

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What does it mean?

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So there’s two basics for an intelligence clause:
a) Sharing of information
b) Exceptions to a.

In short, sharing of information that a coup or attack could happen or is happening soon is what I presume a to mean in all cases. The exceptions are just that - exceptions to sharing information if there’s something that makes it dangerous or puts the person sharing the information at legal risk, IRL and NS wise.

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How does TEP judge information to be applying to these clauses? Some of them specifically say what kind of information should be shared, but how do we judge that it applies to those contexts?

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I think it’s a cop-out but honestly it’s just a case-by-case basis. There’s absolutely nothing we can follow besides the direct words of the treaty in question, and whether information falls under treaty obligations or not. The person responsible for sharing said intelligence (presumably the Delegate as the executor of our laws and ergo treaties, so I’ll just assume the Delegate is sharing the info) has to make a judgement call.

But really, the way it’s judged is simply the Delegate or Grand Vizier (whichever is relevant in the situation) has to determine it on their own, following the treaty to the best of their ability. We have no law no precedent (afaik) on this, so it’s purely up to Del/GV’s interpretation of the matter.

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What’s the legal procedure for releasing it?

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There is no legal procedure. The person who shares the intelligence will hand it to the designated individual as stated in the treaty. If there is no designated individual, then theoretically the knowledge could be handed to anyone in the government to satisfy treaty requirements, although practically I presume a Del/GV would pass on the info to the head of security/executive of our affected ally.

But TLDR; there is none beyond what the treaty specifies.

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Could a citizen share information they deem relevant independently of the government?

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A Citizen certainly can. But they could face treason-espionage charges for it if not authorized.

And either way, a Citizen cannot reliably represent the Signatory, especially as the Concordat states that’s the Delegate’s job. So unless authorized by the Delegate (or presumably the GV in certain cases), a Citizen would not fulfill treaty obligations. The Delegate or GV would have to do the jobs themselves or probably appoint someone to do it to consider us as fulfilling the obligation.

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What if information that applies is delivered in a government capacity that is meant to be private? Would releasing it be considered leaking or even treason-espionage?

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Do you mean internal government information that is meant to be held secret by government officials? Bit confused by the question.

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What intelligence would apply to our delegate?

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Obviously, any information directly involving the Delegate. But what information should be sent or not ties back to the first question.

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Does this just mean proof that the delegate is planning something bad? Or proof someone is planning something bad that involves unseating the delegate?

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Hm, I guess you can really read it both ways, so that’s kinda weird.

But the common interpretation is the former.

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Are treaties applicable laws and, if so, would breaking the terms involve any legal action against the government or officials that refused to share the information? Or if they don’t keep the information confidential?

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I would say treaties are domestic laws and there will be action against any of our own officials who fail to meet treaty obligations in certain circumstances (Delegate/GV). However, we have no law directly stating this, so it’s up to personal interpretation right now.

Not sure about the latter part though - there’s no obligation to not be a blabbermouth, you just have to make sure your ally gets the info. But I would say this would only apply to the Delegate/GV who have reasonable protections against treason-espionage in most cases. If there’s this high-level intel, typically anyone who cannot authorize the release of said information but shares it with everyone could get slapped with treason-espionage, even if it isn’t violating the treaty.

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Who decides who “needs to know” in a need to know basis?

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The designated officials as stated in the treaty.

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If challenged by an ally for breaking the treaty, how do we know if we did or not?

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We’d have to investigate, probably EPPS’s responsibility at that juncture. If we broke the treaty, there are legal consequences (presuming treaties are laws), so EPPS would go with that. Or the Delegate would. One of the two.

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What wording would make all this more clear?

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I don’t think there’s a wording that would make it more clear without sacrificing beneficial ambiguity. But we could definetly state somewhere, in the crimincal code perhaps, that breaking treaties can be an internal offense if we wanted to avoid leaving that up to opinion.

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What does it mean to unduly compromise your source of information?

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Exactly what it says - information that could compromise the person who gave it to you. It’s rare but it happens sometimes.

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On what circumstances would information shared by Allies be admissible in a trial?

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As I said I don’t think there’s any obligation to keep information secret within a treaty, the information just has to be given. so I think sharing all information from our allies would be applicable in a trial. Although of course, it’s most likely best practice to ask for permission first, although it’s a moot point because I presume if we’re recieving such information, our allies want us to deal with the threat.

[Nociav]

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What does it mean?

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Intelligence sharing means quite literally that. To share intelligence (ie. information). I am picking the most simple reading of this question for the time being since I’m not sure what else you could mean.

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How does TEP judge information to be applying to these clauses?

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By reading what is written in the treaties. Most of the treaties say the following:

“intelligence pertinent to the safety and security of the other signatory”

Some use altered wording but that’s the gist of things.

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Some of them specifically say what kind of information should be shared, but how do we judge that it applies to those contexts?

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We know if information applies by looking at what is required from us.

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What’s the legal procedure for releasing it?

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This varies by treaty.

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Could a citizen share information they deem relevant independently of the government?

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No as a Citizen doesn’t represent the Government, the signatory to the treaty.

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What if information that applies is delivered in a government capacity that is meant to be private?

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This varies by treaty.

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Would releasing it be considered leaking or even treason-espionage?

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This depends on the circumstance.

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What intelligence would apply to our delegate?

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It is as it sounds. Any information that reveals the Delegate to be involved in something dangerous to the security of the region.

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Does this just mean proof that the delegate is planning something bad?

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It can. Perhaps there are other circumstances too.

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Or proof someone is planning something bad that involves unseating the delegate?

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No, I wouldn’t consider that as requiring the Viziers to be contacted instead of the Delegate as the Delegate isn’t the one engaging in something dangerous to the region. Once again, perhaps there is another circumstance.

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Are treaties applicable laws and, if so, would breaking the terms involve any legal action against the government or officials that refused to share the information? Or if they don’t keep the information confidential?

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No, I don’t think treaties are laws. The Concordat mentions both separately and both have separate procedures for enactment, repeal/withdrawal, and amendment.

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Who decides who “needs to know” in a need to know basis?

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The respective signatories.

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If challenged by an ally for breaking the treaty, how do we know if we did or not?

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It would be rather clear if and when a treaty gets violated. I don’t see this as a problem.

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What wording would make all this more clear?

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I’m not quite sure what your referring to here.

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What does it mean to unduly compromise your source of information?

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Unnecessarily making your source known.

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On what circumstances would information shared by Allies be admissible in a trial?

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I would think it would be allowed in nearly every circumstance.