The Birthing of a Nation

Author: John E. Fine
original article wrote April 3, 2020

Three years after becoming a new Nation, this Nation experienced many doubts in its infancy, among many other Nations. This Nation, of course, is the Space Nation of Asgardia. The sixth edition of Analyzing Politics by Ellan Grigsby describes a nation as "A nation is a group with a sense of unity, and the unity is generally related to the fact that members of the group share a common language, culture, history, ethnicity, or religion." (Grigsby, 2015) (Analyzing Politics) In the book, Instruction to Global Politics (fourth edition), it describes a nation as "A community of people who share a common sense of identity, which may be derived from language, culture, or ethnicity; this community may be a minority within a single country or live in more than one country." (Lamy, 2017) This second book definition seems more to the way people view a nation today, then the other does. However, it does give a good picture of how the Asgardia Nation first introduced its futuristic dream and how Asgardia is currently operating.

A nation, nation-state, state, district, territory, reservation, and many other communal type organizational structures are rapidly changing from the ways of old to something much different, that infuse diversity within them. This infusion is coming to be known as globalization. Globalization is vastly becoming a watchword that people are using for all kinds of reasons, even though it has a history of its own. The best reason for clarity is the political version "Globalization: A historical process involving a fundamental shift or transformation in the spatial scale of human social organizations that links distant communities and expands the reach of power relations across regions and continents." (Lamy, 2017) A description that describes the situation amongst many nations today.

Nationality, ethnicity, culture, religions, class, languages, and other attributes are blending within our countries today, where few have a single type of way predictable for sure. Yes, I say I am an American because I was born here, but we have Americans that were not born in America, so is that truly a sure-fire way of saying you are an American? I would think it is not a sure-fire way. This mixing of ideologies and personalities is the diversity that Asgardia has embraced so that it can unite under them for the common good of humanity.

Asgardia started as a dream or idea from a Russian scientist Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli in October of 2016. He envisioned a new nation for humanity that used science as its philosophy, unity, and peaceful intentions amongst all countries throughout the globe, and in Space. (Lo, 2017) As Igor, many believe Space is the next evolution for humankind. However, to put humanity in Space permanently, it will take a significant amount of logistics that only a global community will be able to accomplish. Asgardia is this worldwide community. Asgardia has a most unusual political structure; it is a constitutional democratic representative monarchy. It has a hierarchy, but voting puts this hierarchy into office.

Asgardia has a HON (Head of Nation) voted into office, (Georqiou, 2018) Prime Minister, appointed and voted on by the Parliament, Ministers of 12 different departments, selected and voted on by the parliament, a Chairman of Parliament, chosen and voted on by parliament, and a Parliament of 150 peoples who represent 13 districts across the globe. (Rosel, 2020) Asgardia has a Supreme Justice and Court of Asgardia who make up its judicial system, who are also appointed by the HON and voted on by the parliament. The Supreme Space Council is by special appointment only and oversees all laws and activities within Asgardia. Asgardia has other positions like Head of Administration, Counting Commission, National Audit Office, and others that make up its inner working areas that are appointed as well. The HON and Parliament are vital areas because they are voted on by the people of Asgardia. All of these work with one another and effectively create a judicial, executive, and legislative branches of the government.

It is remarkably similar to the United States of America in its structure only with a little different twist that reduces the actual amount of governing going on. The peoples of Asgardia are residents and citizens, although a path for citizenship has yet to be established. To be a resident, you have to approve the constitution and pay an annual fee of 100 Euros. Then there are regular Asgardians, who have created an account, that has chosen to be a follower of the program but not a resident. Currently, there are over a million Asgardians and about 2500 residents. These Asgardians are made up of a remarkably diverse community, over 200 different nations, career fields from all walks of life such as astronauts, scientists, educators, people in business, lawyers, doctors, career politicians, and so many more.

Asgardia has a unifying theme, which is "first human born in space," a motto, "One Humanity, One Unity," a flag, and a national anthem. There is a universal language within Asgardia, which is English, and 12 official languages, a free press (Grigg, 2018), and it has the primary mission of protection and colonization of Space. Asgardia has a constitution, as described earlier. This constitution, written from specialists, represented many different parts of the world and voted into law by its residents. The 100 euros that the residents pay goes back into the economy of Asgardia then used to support its programs. Asgardia has territory, which is a satellite in low earth orbit, with plans to put a human space module hopefully in a year. Asgardia expects some opposition within the space law community as it is declared a nation and has already received some.

A leading space law attorney who stated, "Under international law, there are specific criteria for an entity to be recognized as a nation. It must have territory and a population, and be recognized as a nation by other nations, among other things. Just declaring that a nation exists is not enough" (Mack, 2016) Well, Asgardia has gone far beyond declaring itself a nation from the days first announced. It has started many diplomatic back-channel conversations with crucial officials, within some governments, to facilitate the recognizing of Asgardia as a nation and will continue with those efforts. This Nation has a financial system, soon to have a banking system and many other areas that other countries from around the world have. Asgardia even has its form of propaganda, conspiracy theories, accusations of corruption within the government, and a resident press core. (Rosel, 2020) When looking at the question about what a nation is, plus the political descriptions, this would conclude that Asgardia is indeed a nation. It has the same attributes as many other nations that exist here on Earth. Some countries here on Earth do not resemble the descriptions described at the beginning of this essay. They are in turmoil, massive corruption, citizens are not happy with the politics, people are starving, homeless, out of work, and their quality of life for the majority of the citizens is low.

The United States has those things within it; however, the majority of Americans live well within their means and are happy about being a citizen of the United States so that the U.S. would qualify as a nation. Asgardia has one hundred percent satisfaction among its residents, mainly because they have a want to be there, or they can simply leave. Its primarily made up of professors, teachers, astronauts, United Kingdom Parliament members, United Nations members, highly skilled medical professions, and a whole slew of professionals who hold several degrees and want to be a part of creating a new future for at least some of humanity. (Grigg, 2018) Living in Space is not for everyone, after all, but it is something I have had a lifelong fascination with. So, the quality of life within Asgardia is very well even though they have not fully implemented all the programs. One's quality of life plays a significant role in determining whether the citizens of a nation, think it is a nation.

Nations are essential in giving humanity structure; without structure, we would have so much chaos that it would make life unbearable. Quality of life of a community is equally essential; therefore, many nations may have formed in the beginning for this reason; a group of like-minded individuals got together to make life easier. Some countries were not that lucky; formation was for the few who thought they knew the needs of the many or wanted to control the many. One of the critical areas of importance is security; people want to feel secure. (Stephenson, 2005) Asgardia is essential for humanity's future security prospects. With the technological and electronic age growing by leaps and bounds, it is only natural for humanity to move beyond the confinement of Earth. When we do this, we will need established nations to make the transition smoother, which will be a primary role of Asgardia once we reach that level of evolution.

Works Cited:

Grigsby, E. (2015). Analyzing politics: an introduction to political science (6th ed.). Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Lamy, S. L. (2017). Introduction to global politics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Lo, A. (2017, June 20). Asgardia: the world's first space nation. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from https://www.cnn.com/style/article/asgardia-nation-in-space/index.html

Georgiou, A. (2018, June 25). The "world's first space nation" inaugurates its head of state. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from https://www.newsweek.com/asgardia-worlds-first-space-nation-inaugurates-head-state-994555

Rosel, I. (2020, April 2). Asgardia, the First Space Nation in the History of Mankind. Retrieved April 2, 2020, from https://www.spacecitizennews.com/asgardia/

Grigg, A. (2018, June 28). First in History Inauguration of the Head of the First Space Nation Asgardia. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from https://asgardia.space/en/news/inauguration-of-the-head-of-space-nation-asgardia-followup

Mack, E. (2016, October 13). 'Asgardia,' the first Nation in Space, wants you! Retrieved April 1, 2020, from https://www.cnet.com/news/asgardia-will-be-a-new-nation-in-space-and-you-can-be-a-citizen/

Stephenson, C. (2005, January). Nation Building. Retrieved April 2, 2020, from https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/nation_building/

Analyzing Politics: An Introduction to Political Science. http://www.nicat-mammadli.narod.ru/b1.html/b35.pdf

Asgardian Member of Parliament John Fine