Weilai Bay Crisis

## Casualties and losses

The **Weilai Bay Crisis** was a 10-month long military crisis in MiriAi Bay, Weilai Bay and the MiriAi-Ibarkla land border. Prompted by the theft and reverse-engineering of Ibarklan nuclear fusion reactor technology provided via the Clean Power Initiative and the bellicose response of President Naomi Sato to the discovery of the theft, the Ibarklan Armed Forces blockaded sea access to MiriAi via Weilai Bay, shut down its land border and canceled all its trade deals with the nation, isolating MiriAi economically. The crisis ended in March 1998 after President J. C. Tanner was elected in the 1998 MiriAn presidential elections and negotiated a peace with Ibarkla.

From 1989 to 1990, Ibarkla began the Clean Power Initiative, enabling nations to apply for Ibarklan fusion reactors through the program. MiriAi applied for a single reactor in 1992, and it was installed in the 101st Partition in 1993, providing sufficient power for the nation's civilian population. After the 1994 MiriAn elections, the newly elected President Naomi Sato pursued nationalistic and anti-Ibarklan policies in the nation, eventually culminating in the disassembly and reverse-engineering of Reactor MI-1 by the MiriAn Energy Services in late April 1997. The theft was uncovered by Ibarklan Ministry of Energy representatives in early May, who detected abnormal readings from Reactor MI-1 and the MiriAn power grid, prompting immediate response from the Ibarklan government.

On 3 May 1997, the Ibarklan government issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the Sato administration, demanding that any and all MiriAn blueprints, designs and prototype fusion reactors based off Reactor MI-1 be destroyed and that MiriAi permanently grant access to representatives from the Ministry of Energy to patrol Reactor MI-1 to prevent future theft. President Sato refused these terms and described them as an act of war, setting the Mirian Security Forces to Alert Status 1, resulting in the military embargo of MiriAi. The Ibarklan 5th Fleet blockaded the waters of Weilai Bay from any shipping traffic directed towards MiriAi, and the Ibarklan Ministry of Customs & Border Protection closed the international border, serving to economically isolate the nation.

The crisis was an Ibarklan foreign policy victory and was extremely popular domestically. It served to increase perceptions of Ibarklan military strength worldwide, increasing incumbent Prime Minister Kaitlin Guan's popularity and contributing to her re-election. President Sato's approval hung at a record low 2% at the end of her term and she was defeated in a landslide in the 1998 MiriAn elections, while President Tanner was lauded in the MiriAn press for the peaceful resolution.

## Background

### History of the Clean Power Initiative

In 1981, Ibarkla became the first nation to develop a commercially viable fusion reactor; it used the abundant helium-3 as fuel, spurring rapid commercial expansion into outer space and onto Lon specifically, and contributing to the growth of the modern environmental movement. After the 1984 Ibarklan elections, the GPP and PWU made large gains in Parliament, granting the Pan-Progressive coalition an absolute majority for the first time in two decades. The Pan-Progressive coalition's power was further consolidated by the 1988 elections, where they gained a supermajority of Parliament, enabling the coalition to break filibusters and thus allowing for the coalition to pass sweeping progressive legislation, including the hotly-contested Act to Aid Global Decarbonization. The Act set up the Clean Power Initiative, allowing foreign nations to apply for Ibarklan-made fusion reactors, which would be built free of charge by the Ministry of Energy but remain Ibarkla-owned.

### Fusion reactor

On 3 January 1992, citing the need to decrease MiriAn reliance on fossil fuels and energy sourced from antagonistic nations, President Artemio Ngo applied for a single fusion reactor via the Clean Power Initiative; construction began in September 1992 and was completed in December 1993, providing power for the entire nation.