The World Assembly

Understanding that sizable standing forces held by governments waste public funds and can be used against member nations,

Recognizing that defense of the nation should be in the hands of proportional forces backed up by reserve forces and voluntary civilian defense organizations,

Understanding that threatened states need to have some way of defending themselves,

The World Assembly, consistent with prior World Assembly laws which still apply in regard to the following issues,

1. Defines, for the purposes of this resolution:
a. "state" to mean a member nation or any administrative subdivision of the nation;
b. "standing force" to mean any group of individuals who are employed as a full time professional by the state and are engaged in armed or combat support operations, and are not police, civilian first responders, reserves or militia; and
c. "emergency" to mean the period when a state is under armed assault or there is a credible and immediate threat of armed invasion;

2. Prohibits, outside of an emergency, any member nation from maintaining standing forces in the aggregate that exceed one percent of the population governed by the member nation;

3. Holds that the prohibition in clause 2 shall not apply during the period of emergency and for ninety days after the end of such emergency, and is exempted from the prohibitions in clause 2 in relation to any standing forces that are engaged in activities authorized by prior World Assembly resolutions and laws;

4. Requires that any member nation who holds standing forces in excess of the amount specified in clause 2, must reduce those forces to comply with clause 2 within ten years by either attrition or voluntarily leaving service;

5. Holds that nothing in this resolution:
a. places limitations on the weapons, equipment and technology available to the state;
b. sets limits on the size of the police force, reserves or militia;
c. prevents any person from joining a reserve or a militia, or a voluntary defense organization;

6. Recommends member nations provide support for civilian volunteer defense organizations.