The Creation of Spectrum

[Marion]

Kofi Annan's speech (from Doc Brown's hyperlink on the Q&A thread concerning the background to the World Presidency)

The question with a standing UN army is that it raises issues of budget issues, legal issues, where do you place it, under what jurisdiction? And the big boys, big countries don't want it. The smaller countries are also nervous."

This seems highly relevant to the creation of Spectrum - in both series.
In the classic series - Spectrum's only answerable to the World President - a man elected, who knows how and by whom - and who might concievably turn out to be a raving meglomaniac? (This has been discussed elsewhere on this forum At least I thought it had - but apart from the Q&A thread quoted above, I can't find it! Was it perhaps on the old forum - that is now the Archives? Anyone remember?)
In the new series - there is no World Government or World President and Spectrum is - apparantly - answerable to the UN... sort of... perhaps?
Even given that the series is set in the future - you have to wonder how likely it is that any individual or supra-national organisation is going to be given control of such a high-powered and well-equipped (and therefore undoubtedly expensive) quasi-military force like Spectrum.
I think it is slightly easier to credit it happening in a World where - at least nominally - the individual power-blocks have come together in a 'World Government' - than in a situation where the UN still has very little power.
I wonder what's supposed to have happened to shift the balance of power to the United Nations?

[Carrie]

Marion...creating a new world order is a difficult task! Gerry obviously tried to make a go of it in the Original..and it was a good attempt then, a positive hope that the nations of the world could unite.
But in our current global political situation..that view seems rather naive...even assuming 2068 is still a bit far off.
He seems to have gone with extrapolating the potential of the UN as a global governing body whilst existing early 21st century organisations remain (FBI/USAF for example). Can't blame him really..it's perhaps an easier thing to do than trying to envisage an entirely new kind of global political arena...
As to your question of why was Spectrum created..
In the original series..Spectrum was created as a strike force to combat world terrorism before the events of the Mars exploration...we understood that was partly due (from external sources such as annuals/comic strips.) from the fallout of an atomic war in Europe)and yet..I could only see human kind putting aside their internecine squabbles if they faced an enemy outside of themselves..something just like the Mysteron threat to Earth...and I could imagine an organisation such as Spectrum being created for that specific purpose and even being subject to the commands of a supreme commander..after all..Earth would then be in a state of WAR.
It's very interesting to speculate on what might cause a shift to a 'global' organisation with additonal power to combat terrorist threats..(as it's not happening today...)
This post reminds me of a novel I read by Ben Bova called 'The Peacemakers'. They were asupra-national military force coming into power after the Arab-israeli war went nuclear...under the auspices of a charismatic Amerind leader. There were definite parallels with the CS situation, but again...the events have'nt been borne out in Real Life.
Wish I could answer your question...I'd write a novel about it otherwise!!!

[Clya Brown]

I feel this whole subject is a lot less easy to tackle in a post-9/11 world than it was prior to that time - because any attempt to clarify the question about what constitutes a terrorist is likely to be shouted down as an insult to the thousands of innocent people who were butchered in that unspeakable atrocity. It's been said that the world changed on 9/11, and I do feel that that's true in one very specific respect, namely that people generally are far less prepared to discuss the subject of terrorism in abstract terms - and I suspect the reason for that is that we've all adopted a mentality more appropriate to a state of war than was previously the case, whether we're prepared to acknowledge it or not.

Once you're at war, the time for discussion has come to an end. The enemy must always have been the enemy; he's pure evil; he's the Devil incarnate, and the absolute duty of every right-thinking citizen is to seek him out and destroy him wherever he finds him. George Orwell spelt all that out explicitly in "1984", and I feel it's as true now as it was then. And I do actually wonder whether the subtle shift in emphasis relating to our perception of the Mysterons between the original CS series and the new one is due to that mental adjustment that we've made. In the original series it was possible to feel some sympathy for the Mysterons as a consequence of the circumstances leading up to the start of the war. In the new series, the potential for any sympathy for the Mysterons (even though the circumstances leading up to the war are effectively unchanged) has been removed. That's how I see it, anyway.

I can't believe the UN will ever manage to create a strike force such as Spectrum: there are too many interest groups, almost all of which would regard such a force as a potential adversary. The idea of establishing such a force to combat terrorism is oversimplistic: many groups who would be classified by us as terrorists are supported and funded by governments who are themselves members of the UN. As Carrie says, the only circumstances under which such a force might be credible would be in the face of a global threat to the Earth as a whole - and even then, I suspect the larger nations would prefer to deal with such a threat in their own way than put trust in an armed body that they themselves didn't control absolutely. After all, each large nation would probably quietly be asking themselves whether a deal could be struck with the aliens that would benefit their own country, as opposed to benefitting the Earth as a whole. They could well be mistaken - but I suspect that's what they'd do.

[BTW Marion - I've had a go at tackling the question of what would happen if Spectrum one day found itself reporting to a less-than-benevolent World President in "Tina Palamac - Cycle Beta": let me know if you find my solution to the problem credible!]

[Carrie]

Well Doc...I'd better get it finished then!
I HAVE started it you'll be pleased to know...it's just finding the time...