Terran Federation

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For the Terran Federation in the Blake's 7 series see Terran Federation (Blake's 7).

The Terran Federation is a fictional government from Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction novel Starship Troopers. It is not to be confused with the United Citizen Federation from the 1997 film of the same name.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 The beginning
2 Government
3 Controversy
4 Military
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] The beginning

By the 21st century, rampant crime and ineffective or too-lenient authorities had resulted in the 'Terror', which engulfed the United States and to a lesser extent Britain and Russia, amongst other places.

In addition to this, tensions resulted in a bloody war (possibly the First "Space War") between the Chinese Hegemony (the People's Republic of China and possibly other communist nations from that region) and the Russo-Anglo-American Alliance. During the chaos brought about by the war, a group of armchair politicians seized control of the United Nations in an incident known as the "Revolt of the Scientists". The reign of these "Scientists" was short lived. Shortly after the overthrow of the "Scientists", the Treaty of New Delhi was signed. This treaty did not provide for the liberation of the estimated 65,000 POWs held by both sides. While the Chinese POWs were indeed released (some choosing to remain in the West), military and 'political' prisoners from the Alliance - two divisions of British paratroopers and thousands of Japanese, Russian and Filipino civilians - either died in POW camps or had to escape.

In the aftermath of the war, the nations of Earth lay in chaos and ruin. During the chaos, small groups of vigilantes maintained order. These vigilantes were veterans of the wars, and quite likely former POWs. These veterans were wary of civilian politicians because, in addition to the POW foul-up, it was these people who had glorified the democracies' "mythology of rights" and in doing so "lost track of their duties". In a few generations, the Terran Federation was established and its constitution was signed including a provision limiting the voting franchise to discharged veterans.

Little is known about the years between the Federation's foundation and the Bug War (the events of the novel) except that sometime between these two events there was a Second Space War. No details exist on the second space war.

[edit] Government

The Terran Federation is a representative democracy similar to the United States and the Roman Republic.

The Terran Federation offers the right to vote to anyone willing to complete a two-year term of Federal Service, which includes, but is not limited to, military service. Other possible avenues to citizenship include scientific research, intelligence and logistics, albeit under military discipline and/or dangerous conditions. The Federal Constitution states that anyone, man or woman, who fully understands the oath may serve despite any physical handicaps. In fact the only barrier to enlistment is a psychologist's ruling that the would-be citizen is unable to understand the oath.

It should be noted that Federation residents not holding the franchise are neither discriminated against, nor deprived of legal rights other than the ballot. Several examples from the book bear this out, particularly the fact that Juan Rico's family is prosperous and lacks for nothing save the franchise - and his father regards that as useless. Federation society seems to be at the same living standard as a First World country today.

[edit] Controversy

The concept of Federal Service is a rather controversial one among opponents of the book. To some of them the idea of limiting the voting franchise in any manner could be considered undemocratic. The idea of the Terran Federation as a militaristic authoritarian state is further propagated by the 1997 film adaptation, wherein the Terran Federation (renamed the United Citizen Federation) is portrayed as a militarist dictatorship akin to Nazi Germany during World War II. This was likely because the director wished to satirize the concepts in the book.

One important difference between the film and novel is that the novel's narrator is Filipino, with other characters being described as 'Finno-Turk' and Georgian, or (judging by names) Jewish, Japanese, German, Italian, Arab, Hindu, Indonesian and Vietnamese - hardly the definition of a racially-pure fascist state. In the film, 95% of the Argentine-born protagonists and other characters are Anglo-American in appearance and accent - certainly not what Heinlein had in mind for the Federation.

[edit] Military

The Terran Federation's military is divided into two branches, the Army and the Navy. While dozens of non-combat and support branches of the Federal Service are certain to exist, only those two are shown to have active roles in the Federation's warfighting. The entirety of the Federation Military is commanded by the Sky Marshal, an extremely dedicated flag officer who has served as both a regimental commander in the Mobile Infantry and starship captain in the Navy.

The Army is represented by the Mobile Infantry (M.I.), which is an elite fighting force whose job is analogous to that of the U.S. Marine Corps. The Mobile Infantry, wearing powered armor and encased in a drop capsule, will typically "drop" on to a planet and secure a beach head for additional Troopers or specialists. Additionally, the M.I. can perform raiding operations against secure areas or behind enemy lines. The Mobile Infantry is the only ground-based fighting force detailed in the book, and no other units are described during Rico's story. However, it can be assumed that the K9 Corps as well as the Combat Engineering Teams are also part of the Army. The book seems to indicate that the M.I. operates completely separately from the rest of the Army, maintaining its own recruit training camps and Officer Cadet Schools.

The Navy's job is operate and maintain the interstellar warships that are used to fight the Federations wars. They deliver the Mobile Infantry to the planet on which they must fight, and then drop them from orbit onto the surface. They must then establish aerospace superiority and following a completed mission, dispatch retrieval boats to collect the otherwise stranded troopers and return them to space. The Navy is also in charge of high-end maintenance on Mobile Infantry powersuits, repairing anything that cannot be fixed by the troopers, and more than likely provide all major medical care to injured troopers. The Navy is described as having extremely powerful weapons that can destroy entire planets and operates a number of different types of ships from small corvettes to massive cruisers.

Whether other Army combat units or separate military branches exist in the Federal Service is a matter of speculation, but it is suggested that traditional warfighters such as non-powersuited infantry and heavy armored vehicles such as tanks would be useless on the "modern" battlefield, especially when compared to the capabilities of a powesuited M.I. Trooper, or even that of a typical Bug Warrior.