International Systems Guide

Millennium Dawn features a range of international organizations, alliances, and systems that shape diplomacy, security, and economics on the world stage. This guide covers how each system works and how you can interact with it as a player.

Table of Contents

• United Nations
  • Membership and Recognition
  • Security Council
  • Security Council Resolutions
  • General Assembly
  • General Assembly Resolutions
  • Voting Mechanics
  • UN Aid Programs
  • Sanctions
• NATO
  • Membership
  • F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program
  • Leaving NATO
• Cyberwarfare
  • Cyber Capability
  • Cyber Operations
  • Operation Success and Detection
  • Decryption
  • Defensive Operations
  • Operation Effects
• Private Military Companies (PMCs)
  • Available PMCs
  • Hiring Units
  • Costs and Management
• African Union
• War on Terror
• International Financial Institutions
• Sanctions
• Strategic Tips

United Nations

The United Nations operates through two main bodies in Millennium Dawn: the Security Council (UNSC) and the General Assembly (UNGA). Both use voting systems to pass resolutions that affect member states. The UN also manages international recognition, aid programs, and a sanctions regime.

Membership and Recognition

All internationally recognized nations are UN members. Unrecognized nations and non-state actors face significant penalties:

UN Ascension Process: Unrecognized nations can gain full membership through a two-stage voting process:

1. The Security Council votes to recommend ascension (requires 9+ yes votes, no P5 veto)
2. The General Assembly votes to confirm (requires two-thirds majority)

On success, the nation gains full UN membership with stability, political power, influence, and investment bonuses.

Security Council

The UNSC is the most powerful body in the UN. It has 15 members: 5 permanent (P5) and 10 elected.

Permanent Members (P5): China, France, Russia, United States, United Kingdom

Elected Members: 10 seats distributed by region. Elected members rotate through General Assembly votes, with regional allocation ensuring representation from the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Key Rules:

• Votes resolve after 5 days
• 45-day cooldown between Security Council votes
• Requires 9+ yes votes (out of 15) to pass
• Any P5 member voting “No” vetoes the entire resolution, regardless of other votes
• Votes can be queued if multiple are pending
• Players can spend political power and influence to sway other members’ votes

Security Council Resolutions

The Security Council can pass five types of binding resolutions:

UNSC sanctions are binding on all nations and remain in effect until the Security Council votes to lift them or the target nation’s world tension drops sufficiently.

General Assembly

The General Assembly includes all recognized UN member states. It handles a wider range of topics than the Security Council but its resolutions are non-binding (except for membership and budget votes).

Key Rules:

• Most resolutions require a simple majority to pass
• Membership confirmation and budget changes require a two-thirds majority
• No veto power
• Players can set their vote stance to auto-accept or auto-reject all GA votes
• Players can spend political power and influence to sway votes

General Assembly Resolutions

The General Assembly votes on the following:

Membership and Governance:

Non-Binding Sanctions:

The GA can vote to impose non-binding sanctions, applying trade opinion and research speed penalties that scale with the number of UN members. These are weaker than UNSC sanctions and only apply to nations that voted in favor.

Non-Binding Resolutions (1-year duration):

The GA can pass thematic resolutions that grant temporary bonuses to all nations that voted in favor:

These resolutions last one year and provide passive bonuses related to their theme. Voting in favor of a resolution grants your nation the associated bonus for the duration.

Voting Mechanics

How Votes Work:

1. A vote is queued (triggered by events, decisions, or diplomatic actions)
2. All eligible members receive a voting event with Yes, No, and Abstain options
3. The vote resolves after 5 days
4. Results are tallied and the resolution passes or fails based on the required majority
5. Effects are applied immediately to affected nations

Influencing Votes:

Players can spend political power and influence to sway other nations’ votes before they resolve. This is particularly important for Security Council votes where a single P5 veto can block a resolution. You can also reorder the vote queue to prioritize or delay specific resolutions.

UN Aid Programs

UN membership provides access to several aid and development programs through a dynamic modifier:

The strength of these benefits scales with your participation and the overall UN budget.

Sanctions

UNSC Sanctions (Binding):

• Apply to ALL UN members’ trade with the target
• Trade penalty: -0.5% per UN member (capped at -100%)
• Research penalty: -0.3% per UN member (capped at -50%)
• Remain until the Security Council votes to lift them

UNGA Non-Binding Sanctions:

• Apply only to nations that voted in favor
• Same penalty formula as UNSC sanctions but narrower scope
• Can also be applied in response to raid/counter-terror operations

NATO

NATO is one of the most important military alliances in the game, providing security guarantees and military cooperation to member states.

Membership

NATO membership is represented by the NATO_member national idea. Members gain access to NATO-specific decisions and cooperation programs. Countries can also hold the status of Major Non-NATO Ally, which grants access to some NATO programs without full membership.

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program

One of NATO’s key cooperative programs is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter:

• The USA must first open the F-35 program (to NATO allies or globally)
• NATO members and Major Non-NATO Allies can apply to join the program (costs 50 political power)
• Application takes 30 days to process, with a 270-day cooldown between attempts
• The USA can blacklist countries from the program
• Membership grants access to advanced F-35 aircraft production

Leaving NATO

Any NATO member can choose to leave the alliance:

• Costs 100 political power
• Non-democratic governments are more likely to leave
• Some countries have special AI behavior regarding NATO membership (Turkey stays if led by certain governments, for example)

Cyberwarfare

The cyberwarfare system allows countries to conduct digital operations against rivals. It operates through a slot-based system where you assign targets and launch operations. Operations cost command power, take time to execute, and can succeed or fail based on your offensive capability versus the target’s defenses.

Cyber Capability

Your cyber program is defined by four statistics:

Simultaneous Targets: You can maintain up to (capability × 0.5) + 1 targets at once (maximum 10). Each target can have one active operation at a time, and you must wait 90 days between attacks on the same target.

Capability, offense, and defense are improved through technologies, intelligence agency upgrades, and investment decisions. The AI invests in offense and defense automatically.

Cyber Operations

Operations are divided into four tiers based on capability level. Higher tiers require more capability and cost more command power.

Tier 1 (Capability > 0) — 5 Command Power:

Tier 2 (Capability > 3) — 5-10 Command Power:

Tier 3 (Capability > 7) — 20 Command Power:

Tier 4 (Capability > 11) — 35 Command Power:

Operation Success and Detection

When an operation completes, two rolls determine the outcome:

Success Roll: Your effective offense power is compared against the target’s defense. Base success chance is your offense power, modified by:

• +10% if you have SIGINT surveillance on the target
• +15% if you have sleeper network access
• +8% if you have communications intercept access
• +5% if you have industrial espionage access
• -10% if the target has Network Hardening active
• -5% if the target has an Attribution Hunt active
• Decryption progress against the target adds a significant bonus

The final success chance is clamped between 5% and 95%. A failed operation wastes the command power and time invested.

Detection Roll: If the operation succeeds, a separate stealth roll determines whether you are identified. Base stealth chance starts at 80%, modified by:

• Your attribution bonus (higher = stealthier)
• Decryption progress against the target
• -15% if the target has Counter-Intrusion active
• -20% if the target has an Attribution Hunt active
• -5% if you are at war

Possible Outcomes:

1. Success, Undetected: The attack lands and the target does not know who did it
2. Success, Detected: The attack lands but the target identifies you as the attacker
3. Success, False Flagged: The attack lands and another nation is blamed instead (chance based on attribution bonus + deception campaign)
4. Failure: The operation fails entirely

Decryption

Decryption progress is tracked per target nation and represents your accumulated intelligence against their systems. Higher decryption provides:

• +30% per point to effective offense power
• +15% per point to stealth chance

This makes sustained cyber campaigns against the same target increasingly effective over time. Decryption progress persists between operations.

Defensive Operations

Three defensive operations are available to protect against incoming attacks:

Defensive operations stack with your base defense rating. A country running all three simultaneously is significantly harder to attack and much more likely to identify the attacker.

Operation Effects

Successful cyber attacks apply timed national ideas (debuffs) to the target. If the same attack is repeated while a previous debuff is still active, the duration refreshes to 75% of the original (preventing indefinite stacking but rewarding sustained campaigns).

The most damaging operations (Critical Strike, Zero-Day Strike) also physically destroy buildings in the target country, making them the only cyber operations with permanent consequences beyond the timed debuff.

Tracking Access: Several Tier 2-3 operations (SIGINT, Industrial Espionage, Communications Intercept, Sleeper Networks) grant persistent tracking access flags that boost the success and stealth of all future operations against that target. Building up tracking access before launching high-tier attacks is the optimal strategy.

Private Military Companies (PMCs)

PMCs allow you to hire professional military units for treasury funds rather than using your own manpower and equipment. They are available to any country (except special tags).

Available PMCs

There are five PMC organizations, each with different equipment profiles and alignments:

Hiring Units

Each PMC offers several unit types:

Hiring takes 20 days per unit. Units spawn with locked templates that cannot be modified.

Costs and Management

• Upfront Cost: Each unit has a one-time hiring fee paid from your treasury
• Weekly Maintenance: Ongoing treasury expense for deployed PMC units
• Overlord Discount: The PMC’s home country (e.g., USA for Blackwater) receives a 20% discount on all costs
• Disbanding: You can disband PMC units to stop weekly costs

PMC expenses are tracked separately from your regular military budget. Monitor them through the PMC decisions interface.

African Union

The African Union (AU) is available to African nations and provides membership benefits through the AU_member / OAU_member national idea.

Joining and Leaving

• Join: Costs 100 political power. Requires no active wars, no jihadist government, and no military junta
• Leave: Costs 100 political power with no restrictions
• Morocco has special AI behavior (historically boycotted the AU)

Benefits

AU membership provides diplomatic and economic benefits. The AU also has a shared focus tree that can unlock an African Investment Fund, providing cheap loans to member states as an alternative to the IMF.

War on Terror

The War on Terror is primarily a USA-focused system that activates around the events of September 11, 2001. Key features:

• Intelligence Spending: The USA can increase intelligence spending to detect terrorist threats (costs treasury funds and political power)
• Afghanistan Storyline: After 9/11, the USA can demand extradition of Bin Laden, leading to potential military intervention
• Counter-Terrorism Operations: Various decisions for conducting counter-terrorism operations globally

Other nations can participate through their own focus trees and decisions related to terrorism and security.

International Financial Institutions

IMF Loans

When your economy struggles, you can request cheap loans from the IMF:

• Costs 50 political power
• Requires GDP per capita above $5,000
• Interest rate must be below 15%
• Cannot have severe corruption
• Provides a loan at reduced interest rates
• Can only be requested once per year (365-day cooldown)

African Investment Fund

African nations that have completed the relevant AU focus can access the African Investment Fund as an alternative to the IMF, with potentially better terms.

Monetary Policy

For full details on monetary policy (Expand Money Supply, Austerity Measures, central bank policy rate, currency backing, and reserve currencies), see the Economy Guide.

Sanctions

Sanctions appear throughout the mod at multiple levels:

UN Security Council Sanctions (Binding): Applied to all UN members’ trade with the target. Trade and research penalties scale with the number of UN members. See UN Sanctions above.

UN General Assembly Sanctions (Non-Binding): Only affect nations that voted in favor. Same scaling formula but narrower scope.

Unilateral Sanctions: Major powers (USA, EU, Russia, China) can impose sanctions through their own focus trees and decisions. These come in tiers of increasing severity:

At the International Sanctions level and above, countries are locked out of the international market entirely.

Raid Sanctions: Counter-terror and raid operations can trigger separate economic sanctions on target nations, applying trade and research penalties.

Sanctions can be increased or decreased through diplomatic events, focus trees, and international negotiations.

Strategic Tips

General Diplomacy

1. Join alliances early: NATO and AU membership provide tangible benefits and protection
2. Monitor UN votes: Security Council resolutions can force you into unwanted situations — a war pressure resolution gives you only 210 days to comply
3. Build cyber capability: Even a modest cyber program provides intelligence advantages
4. Cultivate P5 relationships: A single P5 veto can block any Security Council resolution, so having a permanent member on your side is invaluable
5. Vote on GA resolutions: Non-binding resolutions provide free bonuses for a year if you vote in favor

PMC Usage

1. Use PMCs for small wars: They avoid using your own manpower and equipment
2. Watch the costs: PMC weekly maintenance adds up quickly
3. Hire the right PMC: Choose one aligned with your geopolitical position for potential discounts

Cyberwarfare

1. Build tracking access first: Use SIGINT, Communications Intercept, and Industrial Espionage to gain tracking access before launching high-tier attacks — each one adds a significant bonus to future operations
2. Invest in defense: Protecting your own systems is cheaper than recovering from attacks. Network Hardening, Counter-Intrusion, and Attribution Hunts stack with your base defense
3. Use Strategic Deception before major attacks: The +25% false flag bonus makes it much harder for the target to identify you
4. Save Zero-Day Strikes for critical moments: At 35 command power and Tier 4 capability, these are expensive but devastating — the only 60-day operation that destroys buildings
5. Sustain campaigns against key targets: Decryption progress accumulates over time, making repeated attacks against the same target increasingly effective

Related Documentation

• Economy Guide - For details on economic mechanics including treasury and debt
• European Union Tutorial - For EU-specific systems
• Game Rules