Jerusalem Peace Conference

The **Jerusalem Peace Conference** was a major diplomatic conference held in occupied Jerusalem between November 2038 and 2039 by the victorious North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Shanghai Pact following the defeat of the Bovido Imperium.

## Background

### Bovido-Libirachi cold war

Since the formation of the Bovido state in 1809, the Holy Empire of Bovido Has and the Libirachi Empire engaged in a period of cold war as the two superpower states attempted to assert dominance over Asia. After a coup toppled the republican Libirachi government in 2019 and restored the monarchy, the new Fox Dynasty of the Libirachi Empire began to act in a more provocative militaristic manner towards Bovido Has, and in 2020 the two states declared war on each other. The subsequent Has Wars saw the near total destruction of the Bovido state in Asia and a reshaping of global geopolitics - however, the remnants of the Bovido regime in the middle east reassembled as the Bovido Imperium in 2028 and joined with the Saint Joseph's Devotees of Pindorama in 2030 to form a continent spanning empire once again.

### Conquest of Africa

In 2033, the Bovido Imperium invaded the Islamic Emirate of Egypt, a state propped up by the Libirachi allied Persian government, as part of a wider plan to conquer the Islamic resource-rich regions of northern Africa. Consequently, the Libirachi regime assembled an alliance of nations (Canto Haven, Ducist, Greater Ruthenia, Isgardia, Persia, Russia, and the United Arab Republic) to help take down the Bovido regime; whilst states like Canto Haven and Isgardia played little role in overall fighting, their role in helping fund the war allowed the allied forces to wage war across the north of the African continent for several years. Due to years of disuse and internal turmoil, the Libirachi armed forces were unable to be directly deployed for much of the first year and a half of the war, resulting in several major defeats and the total annexation of the United Arab Republic into the Bovido Imperium in 2036, whilst failed Libirachi intelligence programmes unwittingly aided the Bovido sympathiser Jean Bagasauo seize control over the North African Federation in 2035.

Bovido leader Anton Ujung was toppled in a palace coup d'état in January 2036 after displaying increasingly erratic and unpredictable behaviour, and his successor Julios Cragen launched a peace process which culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Beijing in April 2036. However, the terms of peace laid out by the treaty were deemed as unacceptable by hardliners in the Bovido regime and in some cases were ignored by the armed forces, prompting Cragen to abandon the peace process in June 2036. After an attack designed to prevent the United States of America from joining the war backfired in January 2037, the US government initiated Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty, committing NATO forces to the war against the Bovido Imperium. Following the capture of the Bovido capital Jerusalem in 2038, a further coup removed Cragen from power and installed Nicholas Azure as a puppet leader for a triumvirate of regional prime ministers. With the Bovido government weakened by years of war, revolutions erupted in several Bovido regions, whilst loyalist leaders were deposed in other states.

### Bovido Surrender

In September 2038, the Bovido Imperium finally capitulated to the joint NATO-Shanghai Pact forces and signed the Treaty of Shanghai to pledge an unconditional surrender. Following the surrender, a conference was scheduled to be held by all victorious parties in the war - however, mere days after the signing of the Treaty of Shanghai, the Bovido Imperium disintegrated after the last remaining sovereign territory seceded to form the Empire of Pindorama. Despite the dissolution of the Bovido government, the major occupying powers of former Bovido territory agreed to still hold the peace conference, and on October 13, 2038 it was announced that the scheduled peace conference would begin on November 1, 2038 and would take place in the former Bovido capital city Jerusalem.

## Preparations

In August 2036, secret talks between Libirachi empress Penny Fox and then-president of the United States Selina Meyer were held to discuss potential American entry into the war and existing Libirachi plans for the eventual capitulation of the Bovido Imperium; declassified minutes of the meeting recorded by American diplomats show that as early as 2036, the Libirachi government intended to occupy the Bovido capital city Jerusalem and make it the site of major post-war negotiations. Following the encirclement of Jerusalem in January 2038 and the assassination of Julios Cragen in July 2038, Libirachi allied forces under the Shanghai Pact fully occupied the city and dissolved Bovido state institutions in the city. Despite the significant damage inflicted upon the Bovido Imperial Palace in Jerusalem during the Persian missile strike against Imperator Cragen, Shanghai Pact military governor Xu Fenlin ordered the immediate structural re-stabilisation of the building as one of the first acts of his administration, with the intention of using part of the palace for formal talks.

### Security preparations

In advance of the conference, the Shanghai Pact spent the equivalent of $220 million organising the event and the deployment of additional armed forces to protect the city. Due to the lack of civilian governance infrastructure under the military occupation, the city was placed under martial law to allow Shanghai Pact forces to take over the security in the city; over 130,000 soldiers were redeployed to the city as part of security preparations. Much of the existing Bovido police force was furloughed under the terms of the declaration of martial law, whilst religious enforcement officers of the Bovido police force were placed under pre-emptive arrest. Following the assassination of President Sunil Bakshi of Morra in February 2039, security for the conference was significantly expanded.

### Restrictions in Jerusalem

Under the restrictions imposed in Jerusalem, all schools, offices, workplaces, marketplaces, restaurants and non-food shops were ordered to close for three days, timed to coincide with the presence of international leaders in the city. Meanwhile, traffic advisories were issued in regards with the movement on the roads, e-commerce deliveries were restricted to ordering medicines and groceries under Jerusalem Municipal Council (JMC) jurisdiction and people were recommended to stay at home. Similarly, a no-fly zone was implemented for several kilometres around the Bovido Imperial Palace for the duration of the conference, which resulted in the deaths of two amateur pilots on November 18, 2038 after Libirachi air command shot down their two-seater *Lancair Mako* aircraft.

## Meetings

### Opening Ceremony and Roundtable Talks

On November 1, 2038, the Jerusalem Peace Conference was formally opened in a ceremony at the former Bovido Imperial Palace, with the city's military governor Xu Fenlin signing a joint declaration alongside Shanghai Pact acting secretary general Carlo Boreal and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military representative Mark Milley to signal the beginning of negotiations. Following the formal opening ceremony, delegations from all sixteen invited states, as well as NATO and the Shanghai Pact, attended a roundtable session in the grand hall of the palace to lay out initial aims and demands for the direction of talks. During the initial roundtable talks, the conference agreed to broadly focus on five main topics; the redrawing of borders and division of occupation zones, the restructuring and strengthening of international institutions to prevent rogue states from being able to unbalance global order, the extraction of reparations for the war from the former Bovido Imperium, the establishment of a criminal system to prosecute war criminals and Bovido leaders, and how to deal with Bovido remnants scattered across Africa and South America. Whilst much of the initial declaration of intent had been negotiated prior to the start of the conference, NATO member states succeeded in adding commitments to the establishment of an international justice system for former Bovido officials to the final declaration. Following several hours of initial roundtable talks on November 1, 2038, the first session adjourned at 8:35pm UCT+2. The following day had no conference talks scheduled, and instead saw several bilateral and multilateral meetings between heads of state and other leaders; after a meeting between Libirachi empress Penny Fox and United States president Alexandria Raines in the afternoon of November 2nd, the two leaders issued a joint press release advocating for substantial United Nations reform and closer cooperation between the Libirachi and American governments. In the evening of November 2, 2038, many of the world leaders who had participated in the first two days of talks returned to their home countries to allow other figures within their nation's delegation to continue the negotiations on their government's behalf.

### Talks on international institutions

On December 16, 2038, president Alexandria Raines of the United States of America, empress Penny Fox of the Fox Dynasty, prime minister Angela Rayner of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, president Cyril Ramaphosa of the Federation of Ducist, prime minister Salman Al-Khalifa of the Republic of Persia, and president Katharina Müller of the Republic of Dunsteen gathered in Beijing for an unofficial meeting of the permanent six members (P6) of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) with the aim of launching a significant institutional reform of the United Nations. Following the meeting, the six leaders published a joint communiqué announcing that the UN would be structurally overhauled to become independent of support from national governments; the announcement of the proposed changes without consultation with the UN or smaller states was met with condemnation from several regional blocs and from incumbent UN secretary general António Guterres. Further talks on reform of the United Nations were held on January 16, 2039 between the UNSC P6 and other major states such as Avalonia, Canada, Isgardia, Mexico, and Russia in order to gain greater international support for the reforms among G20 countries. On January 28, 2039, United Nations secretary general António Guterres called for reform of the UN to take place through established channels, and demanded to be party to negotiations between members over the future of the United Nations.

On June 18, 2039, Libirachi president Karyn Voor and American president Alexandria Raines held a ceremony to present the Jerusalem Peace Conference's proposals for United Nations reform; under the proposals, the United Nations would become a largely autonomous international institution with the power to raise armed forces of peacekeepers to police international relations and prevent atrocities from occurring. As part of this, the office of UN Secretary General would be granted significantly more power over the organisation and granted a cabinet of senior officials to govern the body. Funding for the UN would come from a proportionate global tax, and in exchange member states would receive poverty relief, aid, development, education, peacekeeping, and negotiation assistance. Similarly, the UN would be allowed to directly take over regions with the permission of the local government and administer it. Whilst many political analysts were initially surprised that the two most powerful states would grant so much of their power to the UN when said power could at one point be directed against them, particularly in the case of the authoritarian Libirachi government - however, in making the UN in effect a global governance body, the Libirachi and American governments were able to transfer several costly international schemes into the hands of the UN, whilst also retaining a significant degree of influence over the body indirectly through the UNSC and the new UN electoral system.

Following the publication of the reform document, UN secretary general António Guterres held a press conference on June 20, 2039 to announce his resignation in protest. In Guterres' place, former president of Dunsteen and NATO diplomatic representative Emanuel Macron was appointed as acting secretary general by the UNSC later the same evening.

### Talks on war reparations

On January 17, 2039, foreign ministers from all conference participants took part in a roundtable discussion on the extraction of war reparations - many representatives of African states sought a pledge from the conference that the majority of reparations funds would go towards African countries. Ducist was unique among participants in demanding that the Shanghai Pact and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation also pay reparations for damage inflicted by the escalation of the war. At a follow-up meeting on January 31, 2039, representatives agreed upon a formula for reparations payments; under the formula, reparations would be derived from a single pool of finance split into four categories (loss of life, cost of damage inflicted, reconstruction costs, victor's reparations). Members wishing to receive money from the reparation fund would be required to submit death totals, a damage assessment proving costs of the damage of war, and estimates the cost to reconstruct following the war. These would then be tallied up, and each state would receive a sum from each category proportionate to their percentage of the total figures. In addition, 20% of the total reparations extracted would be placed into funding United Nations reform.

With formulas for reparations agreed upon with relative ease, a further meeting on February 28, 2039 saw delegates agree to establish an entity known as the Jerusalem

## Participating Leaders

The Jerusalem Peace Conference was attended by delegations from sixteen countries and two international organisations, with each state involved having their heads of government invited alongside senior ministers and advisors. Due to the ongoing political crisis in Persia, President Hassen Ahmed chose not to attend the conference and sent prime minister Salman Al-Khalifa as his representative. In August 2038, Shanghai Pact secretary general Geena Kulmuni was forced to resign amid disagreements over the terms of the Treaty of Shanghai, meaning the Shanghai Pact was represented by acting secretary general Carlo Boreal.

**Ada Nilsen**
Väldeminister
 Avalonia
**Vanessa de Rouge**
Governor
 Canto Haven
**Katharina Müller**
President
 Dunsteen
**Cyril Ramaphosa**
President
 Ducist
**Tarek Shawki**
Prime Minister
 Egypt
**Penny Fox**
Empress
 Fox Dynasty
**Alex Glyn**
First Minister
 Greater Ruthenia
**Melinia Vicetti**
President
 Isgardia**Mark Milley**
Military Representative
 NATO**Meles Zenawi**
President
 North Africa
**Salman Al-Khalifa**
Prime Minister
 Persia
**Vladimir Putin**
Viceroy
 Russia
**Carlo Boreal**
Acting Secretary General
 Shanghai Pact
**Idriss Deby**
President
 Southern Sahara
**Elena Garcia**
President
 Spain
**Angela Rayner**
Prime Minister
 United Kingdom
**Alexandria Raines**
President
 United States