| Minister of Foreign Affairs Debate |
Minister of Foreign Affairs Debate
Communication | Relationship with the Special Forces | Foreign Policy | Involvement Opportunities Welcome to the July 2015 Minister of Foreign Affairs debate, hosted by the Southern Journal. In this debate we are fortunate enough to have both candidates. Incumbent Minister of Foreign Affairs Sandaoguo and Former Delegate Hileville. Sandaoguo: Good evening.  Hileville: Hello. This debate will consist of three parts. First each candidate will have time to give a brief opening statement. I will then ask both candidates questions on the general role of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and on the finer points of their campaigns, and each candidate will be allowed to reply to the previous one, should they choose to. Finally, each candidate will have the opportunity to ask one question, which the other must answer. Hileville: Thank you. I’d like to start by thanking the Southern Journal for having us here tonight. My campaign is simple. We need more transparency and communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If elected I will implement policies which will start a revised Foreign Update Service and bring a new level of transparency by following similar guidelines to that of the Sunshine Law. Lastly, my door will always be open and I’ll be happy to talk to anyone. Sandaoguo: Yes, thanks for holding these debates. They’re a really useful guide for voters, I think. My campaign is not quite so simple. I want to bring a vision to the Ministry that is different than what we’ve done in the past. I want to provide opportunities to citizens beyond the old mundane opportunities previous ministries had. That’s why I’ve looked towards the World Assembly and our own roleplaying community as sources of activity. My belief is that we can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. So my campaign is really about exploring different ways to do things in the Ministry. Thanks to both. I will now move on to the second part of our debate. Please remember that you can reply to the previous answer before giving your own, should you feel the need to do so. Question #1 A comment some have made regarding the current term is that there was a general lack of proactivity, despite the seasonal decline in activity throughout NationStates. How would you assure the citizenry that, under your leadership, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would actively seek out new partnerships and keep the current ones alive? Sandaoguo: Yeah, this term was inactive after its first two or three weeks, partly because NationStates sees a decline in activity as a whole during the summer. For the Minister of Foreign Affairs, this is a difficult problem to solve. Everything we do relies on coordinating with others in different regions. When those people aren’t answering PMs and going on vacation, then it’s difficult to get things going with their region. That happened this term with a planned summit that was being organized by an ally. So, to keep foreign affairs alive during periods of inactivity, we should try to see who *is* still around. While not public, we did have important summits with our active allies this summer. And the Ministry of Regional Affairs did a great job organizing some festivals. One thing I wanted to do this past term that didn’t pan out for various reasons, was an inter-regional roleplay. That’s an example of something different we can do, especially when Gameplay dies down during the summer. I hope that’s an area we can do better in this next term. Hileville: Yes there was a decline activity. I’d say even more so than normal. Assurance is gained when you have results to show. During my time as Delegate and MoFA in the past I did a lot of work to make new friendships/alliances between other regions. Having a great part in most of the Treaties we had for a long time. I did this by doing what Glen said. You have to seek out those that are still around and determine if some sort of formal relations are beneficial to both parties. Another way to build that assurance is to communicate. What I mean by this is tell the region before election time that you had a summit. Even if it is classified you can still state that you met with our Allies. Sandaoguo: Yes, we could have stated that we had these summits. Though the announcements would have been very lackluster-- meeting with undisclosed regions to discuss confidential information. Communication has been an issue in all areas of government, from the military, to the Vice Delegate, to even the Ministry of Regional Affairs. Foreign Affairs is certainly no exception, and that’s something I will definitely work on in the future, through things like "press conferences" and "town halls." Question #2 Most candidates for Minister of the Army have highlighted the need for greater coordination and cooperation between the Special Forces and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. What kind of relationship would you expect to have with the military? Sandaoguo: Coordination between the SPSF and Foreign Affairs is important when military policy can play a big role in solidifying an alliance or addressing other Gameplay issues. For example, we wouldn’t want the SPSF to participate in a mission that could compromise treaty negotiations. That requires the Minister of the Army and the Generals to know what Foreign Affairs is doing and what kinds of missions would be beneficial or costly. Personally, I would like to move away from military policy being a defining feature of our foreign policy. But it will inevitably come up, so it’s important for Army and Foreign Affairs to communicate about pressing issues. Hileville: You need to communicate more often then just when a pressing issue comes up. That has been the problem this term. The MoFA and MoA need to have a close working relationship to produce results. I’ve served in TSP’s Army and know how frustrating it can be when a relationship doesn’t exist. Both Ministers need to be willing to communicate with each other all the time. Things change so quickly and actions can have consequences. So, I picture a very close working relationship with the Army. Sandaoguo: I don’t think we need that kind of intertwined relationship at all. That would be a recipe for trouble. Henn and I have very different opinions on military ops, for instance, and if it was necessary to have that close of a relationship, it would have been a disaster most likely. That can be the case with anybody who has strong beliefs about what the SPSF should and shouldn’t be doing. Instead, I think it’s okay for the SPSF to do its own thing 99% of the time. In reality, there are few instances where military will seriously impact foreign policy, and that’s something I designed in our treaties exactly because the SPSF is largely independent. Hileville: You don’t have to agree on the type of military operation to work together. The SPSF should be able to work independently. The bottom line is there needs to be a lot of communication between the two Ministries. And that is non-existent and the MoA has stated that not having a working relationship has been harmful. Sandaoguo: But what is "a lot of communication"? In previous term, I had suggested to the MoA allies that the SPSF can work with, and not much came of that. I’m not sure what kind of constant communication my opponent is referring to. When the SPSF is largely independent and doesn’t answer to Foreign Affairs, what exactly is the relationship we should be working towards? Hileville: How about talking about Foreign Policy and working together to ensure that the Army and Foreign Affairs direction are at least somewhat in line with each other. You can’t run an Army completely independent of Foreign Policy. It doesn’t work and just causes issues between allies and the region itself. Sandaoguo: I think it’s really easy to say that we need to "talk about Foreign Policy" and "work together" and a lot harder to figure out what that means in practice. Had I tried to take a more active role in the direction of the SPSF, Henn would have had serious problems with that. The difficulty here is that the MoA and MoFA are elected on separate platforms -- we can have a MoA who runs on raiding and colonizing, and a MoFA who is a die-hard defender. Beyond a law saying the military shouldn’t act *against* our alliances, there is no operational relationship between MoFA and the SPSF the way we organize our government. If they don’t already agree on everything, and the MoA isn’t interested in what MoFA has to say, then there’s very little that can be done. Hileville: There still needs to be a working relationship between the two Ministries. Not having one can be detrimental to the progress of both ministiries. Question #3 A few months ago there were heated debates regarding the alignment and foreign policy of the region. How do you describe our current foreign policy? Would there be any changes to it, however subtle, under your leadership? Sandaoguo: Our current foreign policy isn’t guided by any doctrine or ideology, which I see as a serious problem for our region. I wrote about this in my speech "The South Pacifican Purpose." While there are core pillars that have guided us in developing alliances, there hasn’t been a central purpose for our region. I would like to see TSP take a page from Albion’s book, in this case. We can define our purpose outside of military Gameplay, and that will almost surely be more productive and effective than what we’ve been doing for years. Hileville: TSP purposely doesn’t chose a set doctrine/ideology for a reason. We don’t want to be tied down and that isn’t a problem. We have done just fine changing our Foreign Policy over the years to what suits us best at the given moment. I don’t want to change that and certainly wouldn’t support any effort to do so. As for changes that I would make there wouldn’t be any major changes. I would ensure we are a more active partner to the relationships we have. Question #4 A common theme during all recent campaigns has been the debate over the revival of the Foreign Service and Foreign Updates. What is your personal opinion on the matter, and what could you say to support that position? Sandaoguo: As for the Foreign Service and monthly updates, it’s probably not wrong to say most people know my opinion.  I ended the practice because staffing the Foreign Service was nearly impossible. I also noticed that monthly updates went largely unread and rarely created any real kind of engagement with other regions. There is a lot of evidence -- years of it, actually -- that shows the Foreign Service wasn’t as successful as nostalgia makes it out to be. I’ve linked to our embassies abroad to show how monthy updates weren’t paid any mind. Our own embassy section is also proof of that. I truly believe that it’s a waste of time. If we want MoFA to be a source of opportunitiy for new players, then we need to come up with new and better ideas than to simply recreate past failed practices.Hileville: You didn’t try to staff the foreign service. You discountinued it almost immediately after you took over as MoFA. It wasn’t even given a full term to work. You didn’t want to have to deal with so you got rid of it. Doing so has allowed for the belief that TSP is completely dead and wants nothing to do with the greater NS world. You have neglected one of the duties given to the MoFA in the Charter. "4. The Ministry is responsible for the drafting and distribution of a regional update."
The last time our Embassy on the NS forum was updated on April 12th, and that was a post from Tsu about the NPO. There has to be some sort of distribution network in place. No matter what way we decide to go about letting the NS world know about what is going in TSP. The Foreign Ministry is the most logical place for that network to be operated by. I will re-establish a foreign service as Minister of Foreign Affairs. We will start by doing shorter more frequent updates. I will work with the MoRA and the Southern Journal to test out alternatives to a standard text update. Sandaoguo: First, it’s not true at all that I never tried to staff the Foreign Service. I was elected Minister of Foreign Affairs for the first time in January 2014. I didn’t announce the reorganization of MoFA until March 2014, at the end of my first term. During that first term, I advertised ambassador and deputy positions. I got few to none. Prior to ending the Foreign Service, I sent out a mass PM to all ambassadors and got no response back. It’s also mistaken to say that ending the Foreign Service sent a message that TSP was "dead." We hadn’t been more discussed and involved in Gameplay under my subsequent terms, for quite some time. We have been a major player, whereas previously we played only a small role in inter-regional politics. I count that as a general success, not a death knell. Hileville: The greater NS world disagrees with you on that. Sandaoguo: If they disagreed, they wouldn’t have talked about us. But I imagine a lot of this has to do with bubbles of bias in who we associate ourselves with. Question #5 Regardless of your thoughts on the need for a Foreign Service as traditionally supported here and in other regions, both of you have agreed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can, to some extent, help with the integration of newcomers. What alternatives to a Foreign Service, or in conjunction with one, could be implemented, for those who want to get involved in the Ministry? Sandaoguo: As for alternatives to the Foreign Service, I think other regions provide a model of what we can do. The Rejected Times was hugely successful, regardless of your personal political opinion of it. EBC’s radio is amazing. Most news in Gameplay travels on roads other than Embassy threads. I think there are a lot of possibilities for what we can do, including reviving SPINN or creating a MoFA-sponsored newspaper. Or writing for other, more-established outlets. But if we return to the Foreign Service model, and expect that posting in sub-sub-forums across NS like we used to will have the same impact, I think we’ll end up being disappointed. And I really don’t want to see that happen, especially when future MoFAs will probably keep a difficult-to-staff Foreign Service running simply out of bureaucratic interia. Hileville: Firstly, we don’t need a biased/one sided newspaper like TRT. While I agree that they have created discussion about their articles it isn’t the type of discussion we need our Ministry of Foreign Affairs creating. I’m intrigued with the idea of a Foreign Affairs Academy. Educating newcomers on how NS foreign affairs works and is operated could help in getting people interested in working for the Ministry. I will staff the Ministry and have at least one Deputy and possibly more. I like the idea of having a Deputy in place that is responsible for certain aspects of our policy. I think Raven was on to something when he appointed people to work more closely with our Allies. I’d also like to have at least one person responsible for aiding in the development of possible festivals with other regions. While this is generally thrown off on the MoRA the ministry should be willing to lend a helping hand in this area. If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is somewhat responsible (through talks/Treaty clause) for the creating of a festival it isn’t fair to the MoRA to just expect they handle it. Question #6 A recent festival with the North Pacific has been quite successful, and there has been a recent preliminary agreement to organise a roleplay festival with the region Equinox. How would you support the Ministry of Regional Affairs in providing and establishing cultural opportunities with current and potential allies? Sandaoguo: The relationship between MoRA and MoFA is very important, especially with this trend of MoRA wanting to hold more and more inter-regional festivals. MoFA’s role here is to act as a line of communication and recruitment. MoFA should pay attention to the NS world and see potential opportunities, get in touch with those regions, and talk with MoRA about working with them. This process often happens with new and potential allies. Not only does the flow go from MoFA to MoRA, but MoRA can also ask MoFA if they can approach regions that MoRA has an eye on. Hileville: I started to touch on this in my last answer. The MoFA needs to be willing to jump in here and help. Organizging festivals is a pretty big task. Helping the MoRA in whatever way possible for these types of events is pretty important. I would like to have someone on staff in the MoFA that can be dedicated in helping with planning and coordination of these events. I feel this will create a mutually beneficial relationship that can lead to new allies and greater success in festivals. For the final part of our debate, each of you may ask the other a question, which can be related to their campaign or to their answers throughout the course of this debate. Question from Hileville You stated earlier that you believe TSP not having an ideology to define our Foreign Policy is detrimental to the region. My question is what would TSP Foreign Policy be guided by if you were the only one making that decision? Sandaoguo: I mention in my speech "The South Pacifican Purpose" that there we 3 pillars to our existing foreign policy:
Question from Sandaoguo In your campaign, you mention vaguely that you want to repair certain relationships, while also mentioning that you don’t want to deviate from the current foreign policy agenda. What relationships were you thinking of when you wrote that? Hileville: I probably should have stated strenthen and not reapair. Balder and Europeia come to mind. While Balder is an interesting place at the moment I think we have sort of neglected that alliance for some time. Europeia has been a very close ally for many years and were there to help us during both the Sedge and Milo coups. Being closer with them once again and working towards a closer cultural bond would be nice. We had a nice festival with them a while back and everyone had a really good time. Question from Sandaoguo Going back to the issue of the Foreign Service (*audible groan from everyone*), if the issues that frequently befell it in the past happen again, is there a Plan B? Hileville: No matter what the result is we still need to have a distribution network of some sorts in place. So I don’t believe that if a Foreign Service doesn’t produce the results I would like to see it would be a total failure. That being said once the groundwork is laid the focus will need to be working towards what does work. So if in 2 months we determine we only want to podcasts are distribute something like SPINN we will be able to use the basic idea of a Foreign Service for perfecting it. Would you like to give any final comments? Hileville: I would just like to thank you again for having us and doing these debates. I’d also like to wish Glen the best in the rest of his campaign. Sandaoguo: Best of luck to the both of us. Thanks for having us here tonight! I hope TSP will see the vision I have for MoFA and allow me the chance to make it reality.Thanks to both candidates for participating in this debate. I wish you all the best of luck with your campaigns. Good night! Disclaimer: This transcript has been edited for orthography and clarity in the flow of the conversation. While some words have slightly different spelling and some interventions have been placed in different order, the core content of the conversation has not been altered. A raw copy of the transcript may be provided upon request. Former Delegate of the South Pacific
Posts outside High Court venues should be taken as those of any other legislator. I do not participate in the regional server, but I am happy to talk through instant messaging or on the forum. Legal Resources: THE MATT-DUCK Law Archive | Mavenu Diplomatic Archive | Rules of the High Court | Case Submission System | Online Rulings Consultation System
Quote:Sandaoguo: First, it's not true at all that I never tried to staff the Foreign Service. I was elected Minister of Foreign Affairs for the first time in January 2014. I didn't announce the reorganization of MoFA until March 2014, at the end of my first term. Because history can get muddled in our minds, I want to link to the TSP Archives that show the general difficulty staffing an active Foreign Service was, which was one of the primary reasons I ended the system: http://tsparchives.hierocles.me/forumdisplay.php?fid=81
Thanks both of you for participating in this debate and for the Southern Journal for setting this up.
The 16th Delegate of The South Pacific
A great debate and I think it has made me 100% sure who I am going to vote for.
Europeian Ambassador to The South Pacific
Former Local Council Member Former Minister of Regional Affairs Former High Court Justice
I am glad voters are finding these debates useful. As well, my thanks to the candidates, who gave their time to participate.
Former Delegate of the South Pacific
Posts outside High Court venues should be taken as those of any other legislator. I do not participate in the regional server, but I am happy to talk through instant messaging or on the forum. Legal Resources: THE MATT-DUCK Law Archive | Mavenu Diplomatic Archive | Rules of the High Court | Case Submission System | Online Rulings Consultation System (07-20-2015, 06:05 PM)Kris Kringle Wrote: I am glad voters are finding these debates useful. As well, my thanks to the candidates, who gave their time to participate. I fully agree with you. Europeian Ambassador to The South Pacific
Former Local Council Member Former Minister of Regional Affairs Former High Court Justice |
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