International Organizations
International Organizations are multilateral bodies that countries can join, lead, and use to coordinate foreign policy, pass -level legislation, and establish free trade agreements. The system ships with 7 built-in organizations (EU, NATO, UN, Commonwealth, Warsaw Pact, Non-Aligned, COMECON) and also allows players to create custom organizations.
Built-in organizations
| Organization | Description |
|---|---|
| EU (European Union) | A political and economic union of European member states pursuing deep integration, a common market, and coordinated foreign policy. |
| NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) | A transatlantic military alliance founded on the principle of collective defense: an attack on one is an attack on all. |
| UN (United Nations) | The premier global forum for diplomacy, peacekeeping, humanitarian coordination, and international law. |
| Commonwealth (Commonwealth of Nations) | A voluntary association of sovereign states bound by shared history, language, and institutions, coordinating on development, trade, and diplomacy. |
| Warsaw Pact (Warsaw Pact) | The collective-defense alliance of the socialist states, binding its members under a unified military command. |
| Non-Aligned (Non-Aligned Movement) | A movement of states that decline alliance with either bloc, coordinating through periodic summits under a rotating chair rather than a permanent secretariat. |
| COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) | The economic coordination body of the socialist states, organising planned trade, specialisation, and technical cooperation among members. |
These 7 are defined in the catalogue; founding and dissolution years decide which exist in a given world. Players can also create custom organizations.
Organization structure
Every organization, built-in or custom, has the following components:
Founding members
Each is created with a list of founding member countries that defines the initial membership. Additional countries can join later through the membership proposal process (see below).
Leadership office
Each org has a leadership office with:
- A title (e.g., Secretary-General, Secretary General, President of the Council)
- A termTurns of 96 turns (approximately 2 game years)
Leadership elections are held when the term expires, and the office confers authority over the org's agenda and legislation.
Charter
Each org has a charter: a text document describing its purpose, rules, and governance principles. The charter is set at creation and can be amended through org legislation.
Membership proposals
New countries join an org through a membership proposal, which is voted on by existing members for 24 turns. Admission is unanimous: every member entitled to vote must cast a "yes" within the window. If the proposal falls short or expires, the country is not admitted.
Leadership elections
When a leadership term (96 turns) expires, the org holds a leadership election. A candidate is seated by a majority of the members entitled to vote. Eligible candidates compete for the leadership office, and the winner serves the next full term. Holding leadership of a major org like the EU or NATO is a significant source of on the international stage.
Organization legislation
International organizations can pass legislation that binds their members. Key legislation types include:
- Withdrawal bills: a member-state's exit from the organization
- FTA legislation: establishing a free trade agreement between members (see International Trade)
Org legislation is voted on by members, typically over the same 24-turn voting window used for membership proposals.
Only members a player can act for hold a ballot. Client states are bound by whatever their bloc decides, but they do not vote on it.
Two thresholds apply, and both are measured against the members entitled to vote rather than against turnout. Abstaining, or never voting at all, withholds consent exactly as a "no" does.
- Unanimous: entering a conflict at the bloc's call, free trade agreements, and admitting a new member. Any one member can refuse simply by declining to consent.
- Majority: everything else, including sanctions, directives, aid packages, dues, posture, agency funding and joint statements. More than half the voting members must vote "yes".
A resolution that fails, and a leadership candidate who is not elected, are written to the country history rather than vanishing from the pending list. A joint statement about a country lifts or lowers that country's national approval for as long as it stands (see Government Approval).
Mutual defence
The military alliances (NATO and the Warsaw Pact) carry collective-defence charters that the engine enforces without any vote at all. A declaration of war against a member pulls every other voting member of that alliance onto the defender's side automatically, the alliance is named on the war's belligerent roll, and the members are told. It is defensive only: an ally pulled in has declared on nobody, so no other alliance fires and no chain can form, and a member truced with the declarer stays out. A member dragged in this way can negotiate its own exit; it is not held in the war until the member it came to defend settles. Calling the bloc into a war it was not attacked in is the unanimous resolution above. In worlds that begin at the 1953 preset the two armed blocs also levy a fixed tribute on their non-voting client members instead of voted dues. See Declaring War.
Autonomous governments cast opinion-based votes here too, table trade agreements, aid, sanctions and statements, and can call their alliance to war, so a bloc's ballots fill in whether or not players hold the seats.
Custom organizations
Players can create their own international organizations with arbitrary parameters:
- A player-chosen name: the org is identified by a unique short name
- A player-created flag: marks the org as player-created (as opposed to built-in)
- Player-defined founding members, leadership office, and charter
Custom orgs function identically to built-in ones for membership, leadership, and legislation purposes. The primary difference is provenance: they did not exist at game start.
Organization pages
Each organization has a dedicated page at the route:
/international/[orgId]
This page displays the org's membership, current leadership, active legislation, charter, and proposal history. Both built-in and custom orgs are accessible this way.
Strategic notes
- Joining an org grants bloc benefits. Countries that share an org membership receive a trade affinity bonus (see International Trade).
- Leading an org amplifies your voice. The leadership office gives you agenda-setting power and political influence.
- FTAs are the most impactful org legislation. A free trade agreement between two members eliminates bilateral tariffs and boosts trade affinity, a major economic lever.
- Custom orgs are flexible. You can create a bloc tailored to your diplomatic strategy, inviting only aligned countries.
Public API
Bots and public dashboards can read the live organization layer with any scoped API key:
GET /api/public/v1/organizationslists every active built-in and custom organization with membership, leadership, and activity counts.GET /api/public/v1/organizations/[id]adds the charter, membership proposals, resolutions, country-level vote records, leadership elections, and pending withdrawals.
The detail route reports how each country voted, but deliberately omits the internal character IDs attached to proposals and ballots. The complete request and response reference lives in the public API documentation.
Related systems
- International Trade: how org membership and FTAs affect trade affinity
- Tariffs: how FTAs override bilateral tariffs
- Foreign Policy: international standing and its domestic effects