This is why Vulcans make the best Chiefs of Staff.
Presidents of the Federation Are Based in France—Why?
- Thread starter Rrune
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The simple solution is to work on one time i.e. UTC. So what if you have to sleep when it's daylight outside.
I've seen a number of proposals over the years that an advanced global civilization should give up time zones altogether and just adopt a worldwide time standard, since artificial lighting and environments can let people function at any time of day or night. But I doubt such a thing would ever catch on, since a lot of people (myself included) like living according to their local daylight cycles and getting to look at the sky and go out in the daytime and so forth.
We already have a world where people whose specific responsibilities require them to be in sync with a particular time standard choose to set their own individual schedules to that standard, like the Mars rover teams. I'm sure there are other examples, e.g. a businessperson in New York whose job requires coordinating with the Tokyo stock exchange would set their schedule to Tokyo time. So people already do that sort of thing as needed for their individual work, thus there's no need to impose a uniform global standard on everyone.
Napoleon would expect to be the emperor
I know at least one book editor, living out west, who has been keeping New York time for decades.
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the most likely reason that the Federation President was headquartered in Paris in STVI: Nicholas Meyer.
When he was first approached about writing the 20th century sections of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Meyer asked if it had to be San Francisco that Kirk & co. travelled to, offering up Paris as an alternative. He was reluctant to use SF because he'd already done another time travel movie set there, Time After Time. Meyer was told that it did have to be San Francisco, both for budgetary reasons and because Starfleet Headquarters had been established as being located there.
Meyer was living in London while he was writing STVI, emailing pages back and forth to Denny Martin Flynn in the U.S., so Paris wasn't too far away from him. And his Sherlock Holmes novel The Canary Trainer takes place in Paris, as Holmes goes up against the Phantom of the Opera. Meyer was obviously a fan of the city.
I'd honestly liken this to something similar to Meyer finally using his discarded Undiscovered Country title from Star Trek II for the sixth film. It was him finally getting to use an idea he'd had years before, which any writer can tell you is pretty satisfying. The fact that the Star Trek production team already had a matte painting of a futuristic Paris was just icing on the cake.
I just checked Meyer's book A View From The Bridge for confirmation of this theory, but I can't find any mention of Paris outside of the STIV story. But this makes the most sense to me. The UFP President was in Paris because Nick Meyer liked Paris.
When he was first approached about writing the 20th century sections of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Meyer asked if it had to be San Francisco that Kirk & co. travelled to, offering up Paris as an alternative. He was reluctant to use SF because he'd already done another time travel movie set there, Time After Time. Meyer was told that it did have to be San Francisco, both for budgetary reasons and because Starfleet Headquarters had been established as being located there.
Meyer was living in London while he was writing STVI, emailing pages back and forth to Denny Martin Flynn in the U.S., so Paris wasn't too far away from him. And his Sherlock Holmes novel The Canary Trainer takes place in Paris, as Holmes goes up against the Phantom of the Opera. Meyer was obviously a fan of the city.
I'd honestly liken this to something similar to Meyer finally using his discarded Undiscovered Country title from Star Trek II for the sixth film. It was him finally getting to use an idea he'd had years before, which any writer can tell you is pretty satisfying. The fact that the Star Trek production team already had a matte painting of a futuristic Paris was just icing on the cake.
I just checked Meyer's book A View From The Bridge for confirmation of this theory, but I can't find any mention of Paris outside of the STIV story. But this makes the most sense to me. The UFP President was in Paris because Nick Meyer liked Paris.
Stop right there. You can't even begin to compare World Wars II and III, because the scale would be utterly incomprehensible. It'd be like trying to equate a Hot Wheels toy with a Sherman tank.
A global thermonuclear war would, by definition, affect every country - indeed, every living thing - on Earth. You simply can't avoid something like that.
A few things. Starfleet the vast majority of the time seem to be primarily under the control of the federation council, not the president. We actual hear about the president on only a few occasions.
Starfleet headquarters likely runs 24/7, there would be top admirals constantly available to consult with either the president or the council and carry out decisions.
To be a "world war" there would have to be multiple countries involve, but where is it said that the war was global?
A nuclear exchange between India and China (with ground combat in surrounding nations) would be a world war. It wouldn't have to involve Europe, Africa or the Americas in combat.
A world-wide depression would probably follow, and (according to Data in FC) there was fall out.
Sure you can.
I should think that a world war would, by definition, be global. Otherwise, why call it a WORLD war?
And even though a nuclear exchange between only two nations (such as India and Pakistan) might start out as isolated...it sure as hell won't end that way. Sooner or later, the entire world would be dragged into it. That's the very nature of nuclear conflict - it can't help but involve the whole world.
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The Napoleonic wars involved several nations but wasn't called a World War, so I think there is a little more to how we define a world war.
One would think Rick Berman and the gang would have a sense of imagination and have the UFP President be settled at a different location from the one in ST:VI. Why couldn't the new President choose where he/she resides anywhere on the planet??? TNG established there are weather grids to regulate weather patterns etc, I would have loved to see the President's office be in China or a country in Africa just to present a scale of where the President could settle.
DS9 simply distanced themselves of being imaginary after Season 3.
World War I was called that because it was a conflict between several world-spanning empires -- the kind of entities that don't really exist anymore. World War II was called that because it embroiled most of the nations on Earth through various alliances, although it was really two or three distinct imperial conflicts that blended together.
I think something would have to have the involvement of the majority of the world's most powerful nations on several continents to constitute a world war. Of course, the United States is just one country out of many and has only a few percent of the world's population and land mass, so it is entirely possible to have a world war that doesn't involve the US; indeed, the first 2/3 of World War I would fit that description. Given the renewed isolationist trend in current US politics, we may well be heading for a future where the US is no longer a default participant in globe-spanning geopolitical events.
I think something would have to have the involvement of the majority of the world's most powerful nations on several continents to constitute a world war. Of course, the United States is just one country out of many and has only a few percent of the world's population and land mass, so it is entirely possible to have a world war that doesn't involve the US; indeed, the first 2/3 of World War I would fit that description. Given the renewed isolationist trend in current US politics, we may well be heading for a future where the US is no longer a default participant in globe-spanning geopolitical events.
That worked out so well the last time the USA had an isolationist trend. <sarcasm>
Splitting hairs. Like saying in the US the military answers to Congress instead of the President. Both Congress and the Federation Council answer to their respective Presidents, which puts them firmly in charge.
The US congress answers to the US president, since when?
Since always?
No. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches are coequal and answer mutually to each other, a system of checks and balances meant to ensure that corruption, incompetence, or aspiring tyranny in any one branch could be shut down by the other two. The President's only power over Congress is the veto, which Congress can override. If anything, the President is the one who's answerable to Congress. The President is required to report to Congress annually about the State of the Union (it's only in recent decades that it's become an address to the nation -- originally it was just a letter sent to Congress as a sort of status report), and they have the power to impeach or remove the President. Despite being commander-in-chief of the military, the President theoretically needs Congressional permission to declare war, though quite a few presidents in the past half-century have gotten around that by waging unofficial military actions that weren't formally declared wars, like the "police actions" in Korea and Vietnam.
The President was never meant to be the single ruling figure in the government. After all, the framers of the Constitution had just won a war against a monarchy, so the last thing they wanted was to put too much power in one person's hands. Since members of Congress are the representatives of the American people, it was supposed to be Congress that took the lead in making laws and policies, with the executive branch's job being, well, to execute them, while the Supreme Court made sure of their legality. Constitutionally, the President's powers are quite limited -- to carry out (or veto) the laws enacted by Congress, to speak for the nation in diplomatic dealings, and to command the armed forces. Over time, the power of the Presidency has been expanded more and more, but there are still Constitutional limits upon it -- presuming the other branches bother to enforce them.
In the Federation, it appears that the President is basically just the presiding officer of the Federation Council, or at least that's how it appeared in TVH. I've never gotten the sense that the Council was subordinate to the President.
Who said they don't reside elsewhere on the Planet, I don't think it was stated that the Presidential residence was in Paris only their Office.
Well ENT implies that the United Earth Government is Parliamentary in nature, though that doesn't preclude having a President who is head of state separate from the Head of Government. But we know very little about how politics work in the UFP except it appears to be unicameral in nature. The DSN two-parter "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost" doesn't seem to give any clear indication on whether the President is elected by the Council members from their members or by General election.
In the novelverse, the Federation President's official residence is Château Thelian (located in the Loire Valley). Although as you'd expect, it has a dedicated transporter for quick access to the President's office and also to all other Federation government buildings.
As for United Earth: it is indeed a parliamentary republic, with a President as head of state, and a Prime Minister as head of government.
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There is, however, the pocket veto, which is an absolute veto that the Congress cannot override. There is also a "back door" called the pocket-and-return veto, which is described in the same article.
There is something else that is peculiar in addition to Paris, San Francisco, Jean-Luc Picard and the Maquis: Benjamin Lafayette Sisko, with his surname sounding like an alternative spelling of Sisco, which is a short form of Francisco. Also, Sisko was born in New Orleans, which was named after the Duke of Orleans, whose title came from the French city of Orléans.
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