Why the Next President Should Care About This Fictional Country

In late March 1977, a group of drunk college graduates accidentally overthrew their homeland’s colonial masters.

The youth were returning to their island country via ship. They had a bit too much of a special purple drink, then swam onto shore holding their clothes above the water and yelling “deliveracion!” They apparently meant “delivery” — of what is unclear. But the Coast Guard thought they were part of an invading army yelling “liberación!” — liberation! — and quickly surrendered. By the time the drunkards had dressed themselves, the Republic of Z was born.

Z is a fictional nation the State Department created in the 1970s and still uses in training scenarios for U.S. diplomats learning about consular duty. It is a mash-up of countries such diplomats may encounter, with both serious and cartoonish elements. For one thing, Washington is worried about Z’s trajectory because of the terrorist influence from the neighboring Republic of X. At the same time, Z’s independence day is April 1 and its “national shame” is a raccoon that raids offices.

The State Department has only ever offered the public minor glimpses of Z. I heard about it a few years ago in a private conversation with a State Department official familiar with consular training. When I asked others, they remembered it as a quirky part of their State Department initiation. I’d wondered since how the fictional country worked and what it said about how Washington sees the world. As the U.S. election drew closer, I found myself thinking even more about the Republic of Z.

Was Z the type of place the next president — be it Kamala Harris or Donald Trump — would ever visit? Would it earn a mention in the pages of the next administration’s National Security Strategy? Would the U.S. seek Z’s support at the United Nations?

For answers, I needed to know more about Z. So I turned to the State Department, which promptly blew me off. Luckily, other sources came through. I obtained a State Department briefing book with an astonishing number of details about the fake nation, much of which has not been previously reported. (The information isn’t classified, but you wouldn’t know that by the way the department acted in response to my questions.) As a responsible journalist, I did my due diligence. I ran sections by diplomats who said it generally matched their recollections. State Department spokespersons didn’t deny the veracity of the information I had obtained when I returned to them.

I learned a lot about Z as well as the sense of humor of many U.S. diplomats. In many ways, Z came across as a stand-in for the many nations the U.S. largely ignores — especially in Africa and Latin America — and which have started to look to China as a partner. It’s the type of place that can matter to America’s long-term interests, but which U.S. leaders often don’t prioritize. And while the material I obtained steers clear of U.S. domestic politics, Z struck me as a country that would be watching our upcoming election closely.

The Republic of Z is a country of more than 14 million people on the tropical island of Zyxia in the South Pacific. Z’s capital city is Zug. Its currency is the Zolf. Its neighbors are the Republics of X and Y. And many things in Z, especially its plants, are tinted purple.

According to the material I obtained, “Zians” have strong ties to the United States. They have relatives in the U.S. who send them money, which helps them and their country’s economy. An election result that hurts America’s economy could hurt their incomes. Zians also will wonder if the next U.S. president will make it harder to get visas.

If a President Harris or a President Trump thinks strategically about U.S. national interests, they’d at least make a phone call to Z’s leader. Ideally, they’d swing by for a visit. That could blunt arguments that there are better, more reliable partners out there, such as China. Besides, Z has natural resources the U.S. may need, and it could host some U.S. troops as America’s face-off with China continues in the Pacific.

Based on their records, Trump is unlikely to spend much personal time on Z, but his aides, as focused as they are likely to be on China, may devote time to bolstering ties. Zians have a better shot at seeing Harris in person; she worked on Pacific Island issues as vice president.

”If there was a Z desk at the State Department, they would be non-stop pushing for a presidential visit,” the State Department official familiar with consular training told me, having been granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss diplomatic strategy for even a fictional country. “They would be emphasizing the importance of this country to supply chains and minerals, and they would be right.”

The island country’s longtime colonizer was the European nation of Zandor (what, you’ve never heard of it?). Colonization was more of a process than an event. It began with a group of sailors from Zandor led by Capt. Giorgio Zook, who reached the island of Zyxia in 1756. Those sailors lost their initial battles, but their descendants grew powerful and essentially dominated the island’s original settlers.

Z’s population today is fairly well-educated — many Zians get graduate degrees in the U.S. — but unemployment is high. U.S. interests control the three major mining companies, which seek copper, iron and bauxite, and American tourists are an important source of revenue. But insurgent groups want to remove U.S. influence from Z. Such groups include ZOFT (Zians Opposed to Fraudulent Tyranny); ZARC (Zians Against Recurring Cronyism); and ZALES (Zians At Loss for Establishing Sanity).

The training materials I obtained offered something of a window into how the U.S. views and interacts with countries like Z.

You could see where the State Department was influenced by reality. For instance, according to the document, Republic of Z President Sammy Zing moved the capital to the interior city of Zug from the port city of Rosslyn (yes, Rosslyn; it’s where the State Department long conducted consular training in real life, thus the reference) because he “heard that modern countries were doing that.” That’s reminiscent of decisions in places such as Myanmar, where the junta built a new capital from scratch.

Z’s legal proceedings are based on the philosophical writings of the first president of the republic, Jeremiah Zununu. That’s an allusion to many autocrats, though it’s not clear if Zununu was one. But consular officers who deal with Americans caught up in Z’s courts need to understand such context. It can help explain, among other things, why it’s illegal to buy Z’s rare religious icons; and why in child custody cases, the courts tend to favor the Zian parent.

Some details border on absurd. One is the claim that many U.S. tourists get injured by some of Z’s most dangerous animals, such as the Giant Zian Zaley, because they are alluringly cute. (Why do I have a feeling a bunch of U.S. diplomats will call me to say this actually happens a lot?)

That said, “the training is not about memorizing details about a fictitious country, but about developing skills and applying U.S. law in a controlled environment,” said Joan Polaschik, the director of the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, which oversees the training, in a statement given after I told the department I’d obtained the written material.

I’m not knocking the State Department for using a fake model to train its consular officers.

Using a real country and real examples risks introducing bias; a U.S. diplomat may think that every case resembling the real one they studied should be resolved the same way. It also might anger whichever existing country is chosen, if, say, the training materials became public.

With a fictional country, the tale can be adjusted over time. Today’s Republic of Z has cell service, which I’m guessing early versions did not.

Still, I was surprised by what was missing. There was no mention of China — not even a fake version of China. And why so little discussion of Z’s role on the global stage? Will Z stand with the U.S. at the United Nations?

Some State Department officials might question whether such elements matter in consular work. I’d argue they do. Part of America’s competition with China, for example, involves attracting, and influencing, foreign students who may later lead their countries.

Consular interactions also can help foster goodwill in countries such as Z. Many foreigners’ first, and possibly only, encounter with a U.S. government official comes when they seek a visa through the consular process.

In recent years, the United States has — in real life — begun paying more attention to Pacific Island countries, even establishing embassies on some, as part of its rivalry with China. And it has found itself courting even the smallest countries at the United Nations for backing on resolutions such as condemning Russia for invading Ukraine.

These are serious issues, and many aspects of the Republic of Z are, well, not. But its depiction is zany in part to keep the training fun and engaging.

That helps explain the expansive use of purple in presenting Z’s icons, as well as its plants and animals — the color’s dominance is ascribed to the land’s mineral deposits. It’s also probably why Z’s national liquor is the Purple Zittney and its national gemstone is the “zamethyst.”

(In case you’re enticed by the idea of moving to Z, know that foreigners can’t obtain a general work permit that lets them work whenever and wherever they want.)

If Zians were real, they might be a bit annoyed by the American depiction of their country — just another Western power thinking it has them all figured out. They probably wouldn’t mind the attention to their national action hero, a striking fellow named Zardoz. But do American diplomats really need to know about that embarrassing office-raiding raccoon? (That idea came from the real case of a raccoon sneaking into the Foreign Service Institute during the pandemic days.)

Zians seem like a proud people, a quality that comes across in their national anthem. I’m guessing some U.S. official — I would love to know who — came up with the verses. My favorite one captures the unreality of it all:

“Island of dreams, land of the free,

Z, our sacred sanctuary,

We pledge to you our loyalty,

Onward towards our destiny.”

Source link