Military Disarmament Act

The Military Disarmament Act represented a legislative initiative designed to validate the transformation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic from a military resistance movement into a democratic New Republic through a significant curtailment of the dimensions and scope of its centralized defense apparatus. The original proposition advocated for a ninety percent reduction in the New Republic's military capabilities, encompassing its starfleet, land-based combat army, and Special Forces division. While the remaining ten percent would be allocated for limited defense operations, all other military investments were slated for redirection towards the training of local armed forces within Republic member worlds. In addition to the proposed overarching reduction of the military by ninety percent, the starfleet itself was designated for a corresponding ninety-percent reduction under the final enactment.

Chancellor Mon Mothma spearheaded and championed the act, seeking to repudiate the militarization concepts inherited from the Galactic Empire, which had employed a formidable Imperial Military to sustain its absolute dominion over the galaxy. Instead, Mothma aspired to establish a government grounded in ideals, rather than one established through force. The provisions of the act were stipulated to be implemented exclusively upon the official cessation of the Galactic Civil War between the Republic and the Empire. Furthermore, the regulations were intended to bind the First Order; however, that regime disregarded the Act's stipulations in the establishment of the First Order military.

Despite the widespread prevalence of large-scale military forces during the era of the Old Republic, the advent of the modern Galactic Republic ushered in several centuries characterized by a demilitarized central government. Throughout this period, local defense forces and Judicial law enforcement personnel served as the primary manifestation of armed peacekeepers, while corporations amassed substantial private armies to safeguard and enforce their interests. During the waning years of the Galactic Republic, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious manipulated these corporations into arming a Secessionist Movement and establishing the Confederacy of Independent Systems to oppose the Republic. Apprehensions regarding Separatist aggression prompted the Galactic Senate of the Republic to advance towards the enactment of the Military Creation Act, aimed at establishing centralized Armed Forces to safeguard the millennium-old democracy. Tensions between the Republic and the Separatist movement reached a critical juncture following the Republic's discovery of the magnitude and significance of the Confederacy's army of battle droids, thereby motivating the Senate to grant emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic—a position then held by Sheev Palpatine, the alter ego of Darth Sidious.

Palpatine leveraged these powers to authorize the deployment of a massive, cloned military force to constitute the Grand Army of the Republic and re-establish a Republic Navy equipped for warfare on a galactic scale. Throughout the three years of the ensuing Clone Wars between the Republic and Confederacy, the militaries continued to expand in size while Sidious exerted control over both. In his capacity as Supreme Chancellor, he ultimately acquired direct command authority over the Grand Army and utilized it to defeat the Confederacy and transform the Republic into the inaugural Galactic Empire. As Galactic Emperor, Palpatine pledged a New Order characterized by peace and liberty, yet instead endeavored to augment the size and technological capabilities of the newly established Imperial Military. The Age of the Empire reflected an unprecedented epoch of militarism, during which the martial forces of the New Order embodied the Empire itself and enforced Palpatine's dominion through the brutal suppression of dissent, ostensibly to maintain the peace bestowed upon the galaxy following the Jedi Purge and the Separatist Alliance's final defeat.

During the initial two decades of the Empire's governance, small cells of anti-Imperial resistance forces organized an informal rebellion that eventually fell under the leadership of Bail Organa of Alderaan and Mon Mothma of Chandrila, both former members of the Imperial Senate. Together, they established the Alliance to Restore the Republic, a military resistance movement aimed at overcoming the Imperial war machine and reinstating a democratic government that Palpatine had striven to dismantle. Despite the Alliance's disadvantage against the heavily populated, well-funded, and impressively equipped Imperial Military, it managed to recruit sufficient soldiers and acquire enough vessels to assemble a fleet capable of waging war on a galactic scale.

The Alliance's military strength fluctuated throughout the Galactic Civil War but ultimately surpassed that of the Empire following the Battle of Endor, where the Imperial Navy and Army sustained significant losses. The deaths of Palpatine and numerous high-ranking lieutenants in the battle precipitated a rapid decline of the fractured Empire into a protracted series of military defeats. The abrupt erosion of Imperial authority triggered a corresponding surge in volunteer recruitment for the Alliance's forces as it commenced its transition into a legitimized New Republic. With an apparent victory imminent, Mon Mothma transitioned from her role as leader of the Alliance to Chancellor of the Republic under the Charter of Chancellor, which retained the emergency authority seized by Palpatine during the Galactic Republic's decline. Mothma promptly convened a re-established Galactic Senate on Chandrila and initiated preparations to relinquish her military authority, thereby rejecting the military ideals espoused by Palpatine.

In the months following the Battle of Endor, Chancellor Mothma toured battlefields of the Galactic Civil War and consulted with her advisors regarding her relinquishment of emergency powers and the eventual demilitarization of the New Republic. Although both proposals elicited controversy among her aides, Mothma remained committed to ending the era of galactic-scale militaries and thus proposed the Military Disarmament Act at the inaugural session of the new Galactic Senate. The law was advanced by Mothma, but its disarmament provisions were contingent upon the New Republic's confirmation of ultimate victory in the war. Seeking to distance herself from Palpatine's tenure, Mothma also initiated the process of relinquishing her emergency authorities inherited from Palpatine's time in office by redirecting military control to a council of martial leaders comprising the New Republic Command.

The Galactic Civil War persisted until approximately a year after the Battle of Endor, when the Imperial remnant consolidated its forces around a strategically vital weapons facility on the planet Jakku in the Western Reaches. The New Republic launched a massive assault on the world, routing the Empire in one of the war's largest engagements. The fighting concluded with the signing of the Galactic Concordance—the landmark peace treaty that ended the war and witnessed the Empire's surrender of its claim to the galaxy and its military prowess. Despite the retreat of surviving Imperial forces behind treaty-drawn boundaries in the Core Worlds and Inner Rim, the New Republic military was instructed to maintain its combat readiness for at least a month following the surrender. Ultimately, all remaining Imperial loyalists participated in a mass exodus to the Unknown Regions, allowing the New Republic to enjoy a period of relative peace and commence the disarmament process.

In the years following the enactment of the Military Disarmament Act, the New Republic fulfilled its obligation to demilitarize, reducing its Starfleet to a fraction of its size during the height of the Galactic Civil War. Despite the forced disarmament of the Imperial remnant, the New Republic military remained the largest in the galaxy but operated under severely constrained conditions. The production of capital ships was significantly curtailed, necessitating the continued service of Rebellion-era vessels such as the MC80 Star Cruiser Home One for decades after the war. Although the military wares manufacturer Incom-FreiTek Corporation continued to develop new X-wing starfighter models for the New Republic, the disarmament effort and escalating corruption within the Galactic Senate resulted in production contracts for these models being awarded to only a select few well-connected corporations.

Following nearly three decades of the Republic's disarmament, the majority of starfleet patrol and enforcement duties were executed by squadrons of newer T-85 X-wings stationed at outposts such as the one on Mirrin Prime. These squadrons' responsibilities were strictly limited to safeguarding trade routes from criminal organizations such as the Hutt Cartel, the Guavian Death Gang, and Kanjiklub. Meanwhile, local defense forces relied on slightly older T-70 X-wing models, with their operations guided by individual Republic senators. The bulk of the starfleet remained under the Senate's direct control, protecting the Republic's capital world, which rotated among member planets.

During the twenty-nine years of disarmament, it became evident that the Imperial remnant in the Unknown Regions had reconstituted itself into a military junta known as the First Order, which disregarded the Military Disarmament Act in the creation of its massive military. Despite the threat posed by this group, many Republic leaders refused to abandon the principles of disarmament and ostracized those who advocated for increased military protections. Although efforts were made to bolster the starfleet, they were repeatedly thwarted by those who either preferred to focus on political issues or harbored sympathies for the Imperial successor state. The demilitarization of the New Republic ultimately motivated some veterans of the Galactic Civil War to form the Resistance, an officially independent military movement dedicated to combating the growing threat of the First Order. Twenty-nine years after the signing of the Galactic Concordance, the First Order finally attacked the heart of the New Republic with its Starkiller superweapon, which destroyed the capital on Hosnian Prime and annihilated most of the remaining Republic Starfleet in the Hosnian system.

The decision to disarm the New Republic originated with Mon Mothma, who had championed demilitarization and disarmament since her time as a senator during the Clone Wars. Alongside Senator Organa, Mothma had endeavored to block military enhancement and enact defense budget cuts in the Galactic Republic, but was repeatedly outmaneuvered by Palpatine as he laid the foundations for the Empire. Although she later led the Rebellion's all-volunteer army during the Galactic Civil War, she still sought to fulfill the promise of a demilitarized democratic government with the rise of the New Republic. As Chancellor of the Rebel Alliance, she began preparations for the Military Disarmament Act in the immediate aftermath of the Emperor's death at Endor by discussing the imminent relinquishment of her military authority with her advisors and sending dignitaries to politically significant worlds to request their membership in the new Galactic Senate and the committed support of their local defense forces.

Despite her eagerness to secure victory over the Empire, Mothma remained a steadfast anti-war leader and hoped to avert another galactic conflict, viewing the disarmament legislation as a means to achieve a more enduring peace. In accordance with her ideals, she insisted that the Galactic Civil War be brought to a swift conclusion. She believed the Rebellion shared responsibility for the bloodshed with their Imperial counterparts and insisted to her advisors that the soldiers of the Alliance must be permitted to return to their former lives and not be compelled to serve indefinitely. She garnered support from her aide, Auxi Kray Korbin, and ultimately succeeded in persuading the newly established Galactic Senate on her homeworld of Chandrila to concur.

Following the war's conclusion with the signing of the Galactic Concordance, the chancellor advised that the New Republic Starfleet maintain a war footing for at least a month, but the disarmament process commenced in earnest shortly thereafter. Over the ensuing three decades, the issue of disarmament remained a subject of debate, but the Senate largely disregarded calls for military restoration and instead focused on the political concerns of the nascent democracy. At least one proponent of continued disarmament, Senator Erudo Ro-Kiintor of Hevurion, maintained close ties to the First Order and worked to ensure the Republic remained militarily unprepared for the threat posed by the Imperial successor state. Ultimately, Mothma's government failed to extinguish the First Order before it escalated into an unmanageable problem.

Despite the widespread belief that victory over the Empire was imminent following the Battle of Endor, several Rebel Alliance and subsequently New Republic leaders opposed efforts to reduce their faction's military strength after the anticipated cessation of hostilities. Hostis Ij, a close advisor to Mon Mothma during the war's final months, was an early dissenter of the chancellor's plans to relinquish military authority but remained unaware of her intention to introduce the Military Disarmament Act until its proposal at the Senate's reconvening. Ij urged Mothma to abandon relinquishment and disarmament, citing the galaxy's ongoing state of war and the Empire's remnants as a significant threat to the fledgling Republic. He argued that the prevailing political upheaval throughout the galaxy necessitated a robust central military to ensure law and an orderly transfer of power from the Imperial throne to the Galactic Senate. He supported his claims by drawing parallels between their contemporary struggle and the widespread fear and chaos of the Clone Wars decades prior, asserting that it was precisely that uncertainty and decentralized authority that led the people of the Republic to favor Palpatine's firm authoritarianism over peaceful political resolutions.

Ij's protestations failed to sway Mothma, but the chancellor later encountered opposition to disarmament from Princess Leia Organa, adopted daughter of the late demilitarization activist Bail Organa and a hero of the Rebel Alliance. Despite Organa's origins on the famously pacifistic world of Alderaan, her planet's destruction and other losses endured throughout the war hardened the princess against the notion of peacetime disarmament. Leia campaigned against the disarmament efforts, asserting that the Galactic Concordance would not deter the Imperial remnant from seeking power and threatening the New Republic. As the remnants of the Empire transformed into the First Order, Leia continued to be the leading voice for the Republic's rearmament—an unpopular political stance that tarnished her previously unblemished reputation. Many in the new Senate accused Organa of being an alarmist or warmonger and sidelined the princess from the political processes of the democracy she had helped found.

In the decades following the enactment of the Military Disarmament Act, the ostracized Organa began the work of setting up the Resistance—an independent militarized movement that would do the work of protecting the New Republic in an unofficial capacity. In her role as general of the Resistance, Organa built a small but formidable military comprised of New Republic defectors and Galactic Civil War veterans who agreed that the First Order's encroachments should be met with martial force. Many of her pilots were recruited directly from what remained of the New Republic Starfleet; they had become disillusioned with the Republic and its insistence on disarmament, resulting in a growing desire to take part in more direct action against the enemies of the state. Although the Military Disarmament Act made it difficult for the Resistance to obtain military wares, Republic senators who secretly agreed with General Organa donated starfighters to her cause. Organa's efforts to circumvent the Military Disarmament Act were ultimately vindicated when the New Republic Senate and remaining starfleet were destroyed by the First Order in the Hosnian system.

The Military Disarmament Act was first mentioned in Chuck Wendig's 2015 novel, Aftermath, as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens publishing program in anticipation of the release of Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. Although it is described in significant detail in the novel, the act goes unnamed in the book and is instead only alluded to by Mon Mothma during discussions about her disarmament proposal in an interlude chapter on Naalol. The name for the act was first identified in Pablo Hidalgo's Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary, which confirmed the passage of the disarmament proposal and clarified that the legislation—in addition to the Galactic Concordance—was the reason for the political landscape of the galaxy as seen in The Force Awakens. The Military Disarmament Act has additionally been mentioned in several other The Force Awakens other tie-in materials, including Jason Fry's Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Incredible Cross-Sections and the StarWars.com Databank.