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South Pacific Independent News Network · 02-08-2021, 10:31 PM

Year 18 | 08 February 2021

FEBRUARY 2021 CABINET ELECTION
MINISTER OF DEFENCE INTERVIEW
Moderator: James D. Halpert | Participant: Witchcraft & Sorcery

Welcome to the February 2021 Minister of Defence Interview!

I am James Halpert and I will be the moderator of this interview with Witchcraft & Sorcery, candidate for Minister of Defence. This interview is sponsored by the South Pacific Independent News Network.

The format of this interview will consist of a single section:

• The only section will feature questions on the candidate’s qualifications, intended policies and their vision for the coming term.

The candidate is asked to clearly mark the end of their answers so that I may know when to move on to the next question and to answer no later than 3 minutes after a question has been asked.
Opening Statement

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] Hi everyone! Firstly, thank you to SPINN for hosting this interview and thank you to everyone who has submitted questions both in my campaign thread and for this interview. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here and to answer your questions.

I’m here today to talk a little bit about why I think I’m the best candidate to lead the SPSF. Even though I’m running unopposed, I consider it vital to earn your vote and trust through transparency, honesty, and demonstration of the skill and leadership qualities that I possess. In other words, I don’t want people to just vote for me because there’s no other option; I want people to be sure I am the right candidate for the job.

As your next Minister I’ll be committed to continuing the fantastic work that Phoenix has done as well as expanding our on- and off-update military presence in new and exciting ways. In particular I have three main targets on the policy agenda: recruitment and training, expansion of the Tidal Force, and a more complete and well-maintained records system. I’ve already put in a lot of work in some of these areas as an Officer of the SPSF, but if elected as Minister I’ll be able to bring these to new heights and work with the cabinet to further our defender mission both politically and militarily. I look forward to the opportunity to serve and I hope I’ll be able to earn your vote!

Could you start by providing a diagnosis of the state of the Special Forces (SPSF) in the past term in terms of activity, training and transparency?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] Yes! I think overall the state of the SPSF is solid, though I did note a significant dip in activity as the term progressed. In particular there seem to be a few regulars who were at one point consistently involved in missions and update activity who have for one reason or another not been able to attend as much. Phoenix has alluded to this as well; by her own admission she had been feeling the burnout. This is an unfortunate reality with defender activity; burnout is extremely common and it's something that I hope to tackle, but I can tell the SPSF is certainly feeling it on the whole. In particular there was a month-long lapse in our record-keeping at one point that I needed to go back and transfer to our official reports thread; that was an alarm bell for me that we need to do something to address this. SPSFers are still quite active in military, but I'd like to see some of that fire come back.

One of the main foreign policy issues of the region is the Partnership for Sovereignty. Do you think the SPSF has a role in strengthening the Partnership? If so, how would that role be?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] The SPSF's role is critical in the Partnership, and I think one of my strengths as a candidate is my very strong ties with the leaders of other PfS member militaries. In particular the military arms of these member regions are where we "put our money where our mouth is," so to speak. In other words, we carry out many parts of the political and military agendas of the Partnership to a degree. A good example of this is the recent quorum raiding debate; I'm in many ways responsible for setting the whole thing off when I ordered SPSF and other defenders to deploy against quorum raids of "Repeal Liberate CCD." But in this case it demonstrates what I mean when I say a military has the power to put the Partnership's money where its mouth is.

Recently there was a certain degree of tension with the North Pacific over the acceptability of quorum raiding as an anti-fascist measure. What do you think should be our policy towards quorum raiding, and more broadly towards anti-fascism, moving forward?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] I'll take those questions separately. Firstly: I am absolutely and unequivocally opposed to the practice of quorum raiding. It is a despicable and anti-democratic attack on the sovereignty of innocent regions as well as the World Assembly itself. As Minister I will ensure the SPSF takes a very strong stance against the practice. With regard to the TNP situation, I did not consider their quorum raids anti-fascist because they were indiscriminately targeting uninvolved, non-fascist, and in many cases explicitly anti-fascist regions. Targeting historical defender regions such as North Pacific and the Renegade Islands Alliance makes me even more resolute in my decision to do so.

However, I would condone such practices only if they targeted fascist regions, which leads me to my next answer. While we are a defender region and our priorities should first be protecting the sovereignty of innocent regions, I will do my best to make sure the SPSF takes an active role in the broader anti-fascist project of NationStates wherever possible. I outline my general priorities on this matter in my campaign thread. As long as the mods continue to allow fascists to exist on this game, it should be our duty to assist where we can in stamping them out and driving them out of the game militarily.

You have highlighted the importance of training and recruiting. What measures are in place to reach that goal and what additional measures would you take, if elected, to ensure that the SPSF always has new members and that members receive proper training and guidance?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] Right now the process is very ad-hoc, as the Minister has time. I appreciate that there are both subjective and objective criteria in place for promotion, but when it comes to actually testing candidates for promotion on these things, the process is basically "whenever the minister and/or generals have time." Which on the one hand is okay, but I'd like to either look at some sort of formal process, whether it be application for promotion or way for SPSFers to take initiative and demonstrate their skills in some way. For recruitment, we just need to be louder. I like the weekly and monthly reports, but we could maybe be using our NS forum thread a little more to broadcast what we do and recruiting from the region.

In particular i think expanding the tidal force will help with this - The Tidal Force is a lot less of a commitment and will help get recruits used to military gameplay in a much less stressful manner.

You have mentioned both in this interview and in your campaign the importance of reports. Could you expand on your ideas regarding reports and why they are important to the Special Forces?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] Maybe it's just a "me thing," but I've always been motivated by seeing my statistics documented somewhere. So it's partially to motivate people to show up and contribute and be recognized for it, but also it makes the job of recruitment easier. When we can point to a record and say "look, here's all the cool things we've done!" That is a great way to both make ourselves known and broadcast how great we are.

I also just... really like doing that kind of work I suppose. More than I gave myself credit for when I was younger. :stuck_out_tongue:

Could you detail, for the benefit of those legislators who might not be fully informed, the militaries with which we cooperate most often? Are there any other militaries with which you think we should be working?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] Yes, definitely. Our main military partners are TITO, the RRA, and the Grey Wardens, though we frequently collaborate with many other defender and independent militaries, including UDSAF, the FNDA (of the Free Nations Region), the Founderless Rangers, Lily, the EPSA, Thaecia, and NPA, and many others.

Are there any other militaries with which you think we should be working?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] I've been thinking about that question, and this list is pretty much the main list of militaries that are involved in defender operations to some degree. I can't really think of any militaries outside this list that I think we should be working with. The JTF [Augustin Alliance Joint Task Force] is one that shows up to liberations sometimes, but we don't exactly share a lot of military goals with them and I'm not super familiar with them, outside of knowing Jinkies (their commander) somewhat. But I can't really think of any singular military that I could say "yes, i really want to work with them and we don't already!"

You are running uncontested. What do you think could be done in the future to ensure that multiple candidates run for Minister of Defence and, on that note, to ensure that there will always be good candidates for the General Corps?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] We need to make sure there is a constant stream of new recruits. Like I've said before, military operations can lead to burnout, just because it's a very intense activity. I myself am definitely guilty of that. The first thing to do is ensure we are always getting new recruits, but the position for which I'm running is inherently a civilian position. On that end, something I'm exploring (but did not include in my campaign because I didn't have anything concrete) is looking for ways to expand civilian participation in the Ministry of Defense. That could be another avenue from which to draw more candidates and ensure contested elections in the future.

To your second question, I really value a filled General Corps. That comes likewise with recruitment and training. I consider us lucky that we have enough candidates at present, but I can see it becoming a risk in the future, as it was in the past, that we don't have enough people. I'm going to do a lot more actively scouting and testing of potential candidates for promotion, especially as the term goes on. Those discussions should always be ongoing between the Minister and Generals, instead of happening every now and then.

You point out that the Minister is a civilian position, and there is a General Corps that also has a role in the Special Forces. How do you envision your role vis-à-vis the General Corps?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] The Minister is de facto also a General, and the General Corps on the whole forms the leadership of the SPSF. But the Minister's position is different. The Minister is a political official, a member of the Cabinet and the executive, whereas the Generals are purely military. When it comes to military decisions, the Generals as a whole, including the Minister, should be the ones deciding on when to deploy and not deploy troops, but the Minister has an additional political and civilian role that the Generals do not. I would like to see some future distinction and ensuring of civilian control of the military, and I'm looking at potential ways to ensure that through legislation and other means, though once again I didn't include that in my campaign because it's still very much in the "vague ideas" category.

You have also mentioned. Can you assure voters that, if elected, you would not be significantly affected by burnout or that, if so, there would be checks in place to ensure that the Special Forces would not be significantly affected?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] Yes. I'm aware this is a concern particularly after my last term with my surgery. Firstly - I will serve a full term. I don't have any significant upheaval in my life planned until June. Conveniently, that's the next election cycle. So there's nothing like the last term on the radar. I'm at my absolute peak of activity and skill and I'm still enjoying defending just as much as I was. Unless something apocalyptically catastrophic happens in my life, I have the next four months pretty much to do nothing but my RL job and NS.

However, if that were to happen, I'm going to ensure there are safeguards in place if I need to take an extended break. I'm going to start doing serious officer training for a couple of our more dedicated soldiers and making sure there are active soldiers who can run our day-to-day in my absence. And I'll keep the General Corps informed and do my best to at least be present even in in such a case.

Desserts are a contentious issue in the region. Do you prefer cake or pie?

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] As with everything I have a complicated answer to this question.

pumpkin pie > apple pie > cake > other kinds of pie

Closing Statement

[Witchcraft & Sorcery] Thank you very much to SPINN for hosting this interview and for the rigorous questioning. I really appreciate this stimulating discussion. Like I indicated in my opening remarks, just because I'm running unopposed doesn't mean I don't deserve just as much grilling as everyone else. I want to demonstrate that I'm the right candidate and earn your vote just as much as any candidate in a contested election. I welcome any questions on Discord or in my campaign thread and I hope I've shown that I have the skill and leadership ability necessary to fill the massive shoes that Phoenix has left in the Department of Defense. Remember to get out their and cast your vote!

The South Pacific Independent News Network (SPINN) is an independent news organisation established in 2003 with the goal of providing good, insightful and timely commentary on regional events for the citizens of the South Pacific. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board. Content is published via pseudonyms. The SPINN is not associated with the Government of the South Pacific.