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Back in early 2017, I ran for MoFA on a somewhat satirical campaign, and while I ultimately withdrew for multiple reasons, and my views on FA have shaped up and matured immensely since then, there are some things in there that I feel apply to this day, particularly when it comes to the role of ambassadors. However, I think the Roavin of 4 years ago had the wrong remedy in mind. Let me share a vision for you that has been formulating in my head for a long time — a reimagining of Ambassadors. I present to you: The modern South Pacifican Ambassador.

The modern South Pacifican Ambassador

The modern South Pacifican Ambassador won’t bore the foreign citizens of their assigned regions with lengthy texts that nobody reads. Rather, they will give short and quick updates about the important events in the South Pacific, tailored in style to the intended audience, and engage with the citizens of those foreign regions to answer questions and drive interest.

The modern South Pacifican Ambassador won’t be isolated to one or more assigned regions. They will, as part of their duties, be frequent readers and, ideally active participants, of the wider NationStates Gameplay bazaar, and through that be imbibed with a working knowledge and understanding of the interregional political world.

The modern South Pacifican Ambassador won’t be left to self study the impact of what they are seeing. They will engage in active conversation with their colleagues, seasoned advisors of the Ministry, and the Minister about the meaning and significance of foreign events from all over the place, and thereby gain crucial intuition for judging and categorizing what is happening.

The modern South Pacifican Ambassador won’t keep the information they gather to themselves or a select few bureaucrats within the Cabinet. They will actively bring updates from their assigned regions to the South Pacific for consumption by its citizens, and keep public informational documents on their assigned regions up-to-date.

The modern South Pacifican Ambassador won’t be clueless about how to talk to foreign diplomats, or about correct decorum in diplomatic discussions. They will be part of these discussions whenever possible to see first-hand how these things work and, given their intimate knowledge of both the South Pacific and the other region, be uniquely qualified to participate.

The modern South Pacifican Ambassador is a Minister-In-Training. Any one of them that has performed their duties for some length of time will have all the skills, tools, and wisdom required to become the next great Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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And now, onto the specifics.

On Ambassadors

It’s not necessary (or helpful) for us to post big foreign updates. Quicker, shorter updates are more likely to be read, more likely to be timely, and more conducive to discussion. And in a functioning Cabinet, we will already have a mechanism in place to source these quick updates, be that the Cabinet Twitter that Prime Minister Serres introduced (at my suggestion) years ago, or another mechanism. I will work with the incoming Prime Minister to determine where to best source these updates and how to filter them for distribution.

Ambassadorship should be the training ground for new great Ministers of Foreign Affairs. As such, it doesn’t make sense to just give Ambassadors one region and be done with it; rather they need to be aware of the wider interregional politics. As such, they will be instructed to regularly read the NSGP forum and lurk in the NSGP Discord. In the beginning, I will advise them to just observe, and then begin actively participating as they gain more experience.

Another aspect of training involves diplomatic discussions. These are often a bit tricky to first timers, particularly for those new to NationStates, as transitions between the informal (be it memes or “brb taking a shit”) and very precisely phrased formal statements are frequent and fluid. Any time it’s possible, I intend to take relevant Ambassadors with me to these discussions so that they can watch and learn and, ultimately, participate.

It’s important for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be aware of what happens elsewhere, even those things that aren’t necessarily plastered all over the saltmines of NSGP. For example, an incoming transition of power in an allied region is certainly something worth knowing. Ambassadors will gather relevant information and post them in some central place (where exactly is TBD and will be decided during transition in consultation with the rest of the Cabinet). This central feed of information from abroad is useful for many reasons. First, it means that the Ministry, and the greater Cabinet, are aware of what’s happening. Second, it’s a great place for the Ministry of Media to source ideas and articles about the metaverse outside of our great region. Third, it’s useful for South Pacifican citizens that are interested in the wider metaverse but are overwhelmed by the complexity (and maybe it could inspire more South Pacificans to become ambassadors!). And last but not least, all of these items should be discussed within the Ambassador halls so ambassadors can learn from the Minister, advisors, and each other about what’s happening, why it’s happening, why it is or isn’t significant, and what the future may hold.

And last but not least: We have made great strides toward a TSP Wiki. I intend to have Ambassadors do their part in contributing to it, by creating and maintaining pages for their assigned regions. That is not just a helpful tool for any South Pacifican, but also for ambassadors themselves. By including not just the obvious items such as their leadership structure and their culture but also the best way to source information from them, a new ambassador, or an ambassador switching their assignment, can very quickly get up to speed.

On Foreign Policy

I am satisfied with the direction we are going in and what has been established by Omega and other Ministers in the past few terms. We are democratic, defender, and defenders of democracy. We are also willing to work with almost anyone in good faith if our interests align and good faith is reciprocated. The new Partnership for Sovereignty is a huge diplomatic milestone that we must nourish going forward.

On Me

My record in this region is extensive. It would take quite some time to type it all out, but as it pertains to this job, I am the South Pacific’s longest serving Prime Minister, at 5 full terms (20 months!) non-consecutively. It’s fair to say that I have been the most FA-forward Prime Minister we have had, at least in recent times. I have also been an FA advisor for years and was usually involved at least as a consultant for nearly all major FA events of the past few years.

The continued success of our region depends on the newer generations, but for them to have a fair shot at doing a good job, they need the support and guidance of those that have been around the block a couple of times. I’m certainly in the latter category these days, but training the new generation to take over is something that has been very important to me for quite some time (see my last Prime Minister campaign, for example). Of all the benefits that my proposed reimagining to South Pacifican Ambassadorship entails, raising the next generation of great Ministers of Foreign Affairs is the most important one, and it is in that spirit that I have decided to put my name forward. It is also in that same spirit that, just like my last term as Prime Minister, I only intend to run for one term. I sincerely believe that even achieving partial success with my stated goals directly leads to us having several viable and capable candidates for this important Ministry in the next election, and so I will then step aside once again and let somebody else take the reins.

My home region is, and always has been, the South Pacific. If conflicted between the South Pacific and any place else, I will always choose TSP, no exception. That being said, I am also a citizen in Lazarus, serve as Chief Justice in Mariner Trench (the companion region to the MT Army), and am a Commander in the Order of the Grey Wardens. I have no intentions of attaining any political position in any of these, and I see the potential for conflicts as extremely low (and so far, history has validated this).

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And as always - I encourage you to ask any and all questions that you have. I will be delighted to answer them.

(Note: The CoI is contained in the second-to-last paragraph)

Why in the world would you make people even lurk in NSGP server?!

(02-04-2021, 05:22 PM)Moonstar Wrote: Why in the world would you make people even lurk in NSGP server?!

Thanks for the question! Love it or hate it, the NSGP Discord server is a non-negligible source of information these days, supplementing what's available on the NSGP forum and through sourcing from the individual regions.

How will you ensure that all of this work--posting updates abroad and at home, lurking in NSGP, maintaining the Wiki, etc.--won't be too much work for ambassadors? Do you worry about burnout or being unable to attract enough interested ambassadors from this large workload? If so, how do you plan to address this?

Do you worry about your own burnout from trying to manage all of this?

What role do you envision for Secretaries of States?

How will you work with ambassadors who neglect their duties?

Your campaign is largely focused on the ambassador program, with one vague paragraph about actual foreign policy. Can you elaborate more on what your foreign policy will be?

You have been nominated as Associate Justice. While that position would not necessarily require daily attention, would you be able to assure voters that if elected Minister and confirmed as Justice, neither position would suffer from a deficit of attention?

How would you increase the South Pacific's influence on the world stage when we continue to lose influence with the vast overwhelmingly majority of regions that are not explicitly defenders and with our closest allies fast becoming our fellow members of the PfS?

You currently serve on the Legislator Committee, the General Corps, have been nominated to the High Court, are a Senior Moderator and Forum Admin. Whilst none of these posts are fire-walled against being held by a Cabinet Minister, they are five lifetime appointments to positions of authority and power. No one writing the regions laws ever really contemplated a single individual holding so many posts in our regional bureaucracy, never mind whilst simultaneously serving in political roles.

Which posts do you think are most important?

Which posts would you resign from if elected Minister of Foreign Affairs?

So many questions this early already! Thank you for all of them.

(02-04-2021, 05:34 PM)Purple Hyacinth Wrote: How will you ensure that all of this work--posting updates abroad and at home, lurking in NSGP, maintaining the Wiki, etc.--won't be too much work for ambassadors? Do you worry about burnout or being unable to attract enough interested ambassadors from this large workload? If so, how do you plan to address this?

Going OOC here for a moment: IRL, I work as a senior software developer and am a co-team-leader in my department. One of the most effective changes we've introduced in the past two years was checklists. Before, the process for committing code changes was documented in some place but most of the time developers would just wing it with what they remembered and, ultimately, forget a step or two. We changed it so that in our groupware system, each task has a dedicated checklist with the individual items that need to be done before a task is considered completed. It's a really simple change but it had two easy benefits: For one, the obvious one, steps wouldn't be forgotten and were less likely to be done wrong because they were on the checklist, and we gave our QA department the permission to radically reject any task that didn't have a completed checklist. The second less obvious one is that it ended up being easier for developers (myself included) - when the code is written, it's just mindlessly stepping through the checklist once, which takes about 2-10 minutes depending on the complexity of the task, and it's done.

Back to TSP: The precise details of this would be worked out during the transition, as it may play hand-in-hand with management strategies that the next PM wishes to enact (for example, Glen's campaign makes reference to that). The principle, however, is that checklist approach, which in this case could likely just be an excel sheet.

(02-04-2021, 05:34 PM)Purple Hyacinth Wrote: Do you worry about your own burnout from trying to manage all of this?

Yes, and I've felt the burn (see my activity the latter half of 2020). I feel like I've successfully worked through that burn and am energized again. Besides, I'm only planning one term.

(02-04-2021, 05:34 PM)Purple Hyacinth Wrote: What role do you envision for Secretaries of States?

Unlike in previous terms, they wouldn't have a set of ambassadors they are responsible for, because that would conflict somewhat with the more socratic style I'm going for; rather, they would collectively help me make sure that things are being done. The checklist system would go a long way here for that.

(02-04-2021, 05:34 PM)Purple Hyacinth Wrote: How will you work with ambassadors who neglect their duties?

With lenience initially, but eventually the plug has to be pulled. While that won't be the case in the beginning, the system I'm hoping to set up would make it so that another ambassador can quickly step in.

(02-04-2021, 05:34 PM)Purple Hyacinth Wrote: Your campaign is largely focused on the ambassador program, with one vague paragraph about actual foreign policy. Can you elaborate more on what your foreign policy will be?

My views are mostly status-quo at this point, though I'll add a few short items:

Making sure PfS runs smoothly must be a priority. It's a huge idea, one with a boatload of potential, but we've also seen how big multi-lateral alliances can easily fail spectacularly throughout NS history (SovCon, SovAcc, CAIN, you name it). Swiftly appointing a competent Delegation is crucial here, not just to represent our own interests within PfS, but also to contribute towards its success with our own knowledge and expertise. I have not been a part of the PfS discussions so I'm not able to speak authoritatively on what other things may be needed here, however bringing people together towards common goals isn't something new to me - I once unified 6 GCRs, some with very opposing viewpoints, towards the historic Peacekeeper Agreement in Lazarus back in 2018.

We should strive to always be good allies and fulfill our obligations to them, even if it may be annoying or uncomfortable. Being a bad ally once outweighs being a good ally 20 times, and I can speak from experience (particularly from 2017) that having any perception of being a "bad ally" hang over a region's head, justified or not, is a harsh tide to swim against when it comes to doing business.

I'm satisfied with the set of alliances we have, and don't see an immediate need to augment the treaty web. That being said, I'm certainly open to new opportunities here, preferably (but not necessarily) regions that themselves are defender regions.

We shouldn't shy away from doing business with regions just because they aren't defender or democratic. There are regions that don't see eye to eye with us on this issue, but that we can engage with in mutual good faith and are therefore viable partners for collaboration on specific items where we do agree. The current leadership in the West Pacific comes to mind, but that's just one semi-arbitrary (if high-profile) example.

And finally, to preempt the inevitable question: Regarding the situation with our ally in the North, I certainly can't go into too many specific details right now, for several reasons including the fact that I wouldn't be in charge of the Minister for another 2.5 weeks. I believe there are many productive and fruitful conversations to be had with them and I'm looking forward to having those conversations with them once they have met our very reasonable demand for a public clarification on their part.

(02-04-2021, 05:47 PM)Kris Kringle Wrote: You have been nominated as Associate Justice. While that position would not necessarily require daily attention, would you be able to assure voters that if elected Minister and confirmed as Justice, neither position would suffer from a deficit of attention?

The mindset for being a Justice and for being a Cabinet Minister are different, and therefore different moods will inspire one to work on one or the other in a given day's NS time. Assuming there are no big scandals, the busiest time for me within Cabinet will be the first few crucial weeks where things are being set up. I don't expect the High Court to immediately assign me as presiding justice for a case upon appointment.

(02-04-2021, 05:53 PM)Langburn Wrote: How would you increase the South Pacific's influence on the world stage when we continue to lose influence with the vast overwhelmingly majority of regions that are not explicitly defenders and with our closest allies fast becoming our fellow members of the PfS?

I disagree that we are losing influence on the world stage. We're not only allied with or on good terms with defenders, and I don't why that would change or should change.

(02-04-2021, 06:08 PM)Belschaft Wrote: You currently serve on the Legislator Committee, the General Corps, have been nominated to the High Court, are a Senior Moderator and Forum Admin. Whilst none of these posts are fire-walled against being held by a Cabinet Minister, they are five lifetime appointments to positions of authority and power. No one writing the regions laws ever really contemplated a single individual holding so many posts in our regional bureaucracy, never mind whilst simultaneously serving in political roles.

Which posts do you think are most important?

Which posts would you resign from if elected Minister of Foreign Affairs?

All those posts are important in their own way and necessary (in some sense) for the continuation of our government (for the IC positions) and our community (for the OOC positions). Personally, I'm looking forward to being able to resign from LegComm and GenCorps when I can do so in good conscience with regards to the continuity of those institutions, which will hopefully happen sooner rather than later.

(02-04-2021, 07:16 PM)Roavin Wrote: For one, the obvious one, steps wouldn't be forgotten and were less likely to be done wrong because they were on the checklist, and we gave our QA department the permission to radically reject any task that didn't have a completed checklist. The second less obvious one is that it ended up being easier for developers (myself included) - when the code is written, it's just mindlessly stepping through the checklist once, which takes about 2-10 minutes depending on the complexity of the task, and it's done.

The auditor in me really likes the sound of that.

(02-04-2021, 07:16 PM)Roavin Wrote: I don't expect the High Court to immediately assign me as presiding justice for a case upon appointment.

I can be cruel when I want. ^^

(02-04-2021, 05:03 PM)Roavin Wrote:

 

The modern South Pacifican Ambassador

1. The modern South Pacifican Ambassador won’t bore the foreign citizens of their assigned regions with lengthy texts that nobody reads. Rather, they will give short and quick updates about the important events in the South Pacific, tailored in style to the intended audience, and engage with the citizens of those foreign regions to answer questions and drive interest.

2. The modern South Pacifican Ambassador won’t be isolated to one or more assigned regions. They will, as part of their duties, be frequent readers and, ideally active participants, of the wider NationStates Gameplay bazaar, and through that be imbibed with a working knowledge and understanding of the interregional political world.

3. The modern South Pacifican Ambassador won’t be clueless about how to talk to foreign diplomats, or about correct decorum in diplomatic discussions. They will be part of these discussions whenever possible to see first-hand how these things work and, given their intimate knowledge of both the South Pacific and the other region, be uniquely qualified to participate.

4. The modern South Pacifican Ambassador is a Minister-In-Training. Any one of them that has performed their duties for some length of time will have all the skills, tools, and wisdom required to become the next great Minister of Foreign Affairs.

On You

See below

Good evening. For the purposes of space, I have cut down your campaign to the main points I want to question and/or make a statement and have numbered these points.

1. I was involved in the MoFA for four months in 2018 before taking a year out for my studies. Back then, texts were expected to be lengthy and updates were more like work. Since my return in November 2019, I have not known a single Ambassador update to be lengthy so what exactly are you changing?

2. The modern TSP Ambassador to this point has not been isolated to one region. In 2018, we were, since November 2019, Ambassadors have been allowed to have one if they are busy in their lives and I feel it is doing no good to suggest those who want to do a bit less should not be involved, however, that small minority aside, more active/free Ambassadors have had at least 2 regions, in fact, in November 2019 until about February 2020, Ambassadors had four each, there were four that I am aware of who, from February 2020, went on to become the first TSP Secretaries of State. I must ask again, what are you changing?

3. Has it not, since February 2020, been the job of the Secretary of State to support their appointed Ambassadors in this task and help them to become comfortable in this area whilst also building professional relationships and continuing their work?

4. As a current Secretary of State myself, this is how I always approached my task. In my three terms in the role, I have sought to work with my appointed Ambassadors, teach them the ropes and hopefully prepare them for the eventuality of not having someone to guide them along. By the end of each term, I have to say, I was always confident my appointed Ambassadors, without naming them, were now suitable Secretary of State candidates or even MoFA candidates. Only that a few times they were not available for election, I would have nominated them. How will you take on this approach? Will you have Secretaries of State? Will you do it all yourself? Will you have time to?

Finally, above, you will see I have changed 'On Me' to 'On You', just on you, in light of the very divisive October 2020 term we're just entering the final stage of now, do you actually have the time to commit now until June to serve as MoFA? The current Minister, I hate to say, did not have this time, set deadlines for when they were going to organise the Ministry, they missed these deadlines twice! I was expected to know what was going on and I did not know. Roles just changed, the reason was allegedly stated in public, I never saw it and it was not made available to me when it was made clear I had not seen it. On taking Office, will this Ministry be organised immediately or will you leave it until the day before the June 2021 election?