Editing Known Space (section)

==Organizations== 
 
The ARM is the police force of the United Nations. ARM originated as an [[initialism|acronym]] for "Amalgamation of Regional Militia", though this is not a term in current usage by the time of the ''Known Space'' novels.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Niven|first1=Larry|title=The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton|date=February 1976|publisher=Del Rey / Ballantine|isbn=0-345-28922-6|page=32|quote=But I had joined the ARMs, once the Amalgamation of Regional Militia, now the United Nations Police.}}</ref> An agent of the ARM, [[Gil Hamilton]], is the protagonist of Niven's science fictional detective stories, a series-within-a-series gathered in the collection ''[[Flatlander (short story collection)|Flatlander]]''. (Confusingly, "Flatlander" is also the name of an unrelated ''Known Space'' story.)

Their basic function is to enforce mandatory birth control on overcrowded Earth, and restrict research which might lead to dangerous weapons. In short, the ARM hunts down women who have illegal pregnancies and suppresses all new technologies. They also hunt organleggers, especially in the era of the "organ bank problem". Among the many technologies they control and outlaw are all trained forms of armed and unarmed combat. By the 25th century, ARM agents were kept in an artificially induced state of [[paranoid schizophrenia]] to enhance their usefulness as law enforcement officials, which led to them sometimes being referred to as "''Schizes''". Agents with natural tendencies toward paranoia were medicated into docility during their off duty hours, through the aforementioned science of [[psychistry]] (see ''[[Madness Has Its Place]]'' and ''[[Juggler of Worlds]]'').

Their [[jurisdiction]] is limited to the Earth-Moon system; other human colonies have their own [[militia]]. Nevertheless, in many ''Known Space'' stories, ARM agents operate or exert influence in other human star systems through the "Bureau of Alien Affairs" (see "In the Hall of the Mountain King", "[[Procrustes (story)|Procrustes]]", "[[The Borderland of Sol]]", and "[[Neutron Star (short story)|Neutron Star]]"). These interventions begin following the Man-Kzin Wars and the introduction of hyperdrive, presumably as part of a general re-integration of human societies.