Union And Service

"Interstellar war and interstellar government are both improbable: space is too big, an entire planet too self-sufficient. But a loose alliance of the civilized worlds (the Union) and a joint patrol to protect individuals and backward societies from the grosser forms of exploitation (the Coordination Service) are likely to be organized."

-Poul Anderson, Virgin Planet (London, 1966), AUTHOR'S NOTE, p. 151.

But surely the Stellar Union acts like a government by making laws and the Cordies act like a police force by enforcing those laws?

If planets are self-sufficient, then why should they suffer a Dark Age when interstellar travel ceases? And, if such travel has become practicable and widespread, then why should it cease? Coordinator Trevelyan Micah reminds the multiplex artist, Braganza Diane, of what had happened on Earth when sovereign states worked at unintegrated cross-purposes. But why should unintegrated cross-purposes threaten the Stellar Union? New intelligent species with unfathomable motivations are being discovered continually and Trevelyan fears:

"'...the effects on these of a sudden introduction to an interstellar civilization!'"

-The Peregrine, CHAPTER IV, p. 28.

But, if these effects include conflicts like those between Terrestrial nations, then interstellar war is not improbable but inevitable.

The Alori race, encountered in The Peregrine, is indeed a threat because it plans to subvert human nature.