(10-07-2018, 03:32 PM)The Serres Republic Wrote: Due to the fact that I truly want to see Glen's mantra in action in the FA I am going to endorse him as a candidate. the Foreign Affairs office has been run the same way for a long while and while I can't exactly say it has been an ineffective set up, I can say that due to the massive changes during last term and the term before that a different approach is 100% worth trying. Not to mention that Glen has vast experience in FA and if given the role of leadership I wholeheartedly believe he will make the office succeed. IT is my recommendation that you give your vote to Glenn this election cycle.

Thank you! I've enjoyed the stability and respectfulness you brought back to our FA ministry. I appreciate the endorsement <3
 

(10-09-2018, 06:16 AM)Roavin Wrote: What is your view on festivals as a FA tool?

I think festivals are great, though I'll admit I don't often participate in them myself. But lots of a people do, and holding festivals has brought us closer to other regions. People get to know each other, which is the most important outcome. I don't think festivals are something that we should expect the FA ministry to do itself, though. The skill set for organizing those and running those are what we look for in the Ministry of Regional Affairs. The two ministries work together to hold festivals, which is a good way of doing things in my experience.
 

(10-09-2018, 06:16 AM)Roavin Wrote: Somy's campaign is explicitly positive. What are your views on positive FA as Somy describes versus your approach?

There isn't a competition being "positive" versus "negative." I wouldn't call anything in my approach to FA negative, even. Foreign affairs in this game is just a fancy term for two things: knowing who's playing the game and knowing how they play it. The role is fundamentally one where you need a good grasp of how things outside of our region work, and then figuring out the best way to interact with that in a way that works for us. We can't force other people in the game to be chill and happy-go-lucky and peaceful. A good minister needs to have a dose of both optimism and, I'll call it, pragmatic pessimism. They shouldn't dismiss one over the other. Balance.

For example, WA cooperation is a positive element of my foreign affairs agenda, because we'd be working with our allies in a mutually beneficial, virtuous circle-y way. But it's also important because Balder and Europeia have their own very powerful WA alliance that can be used to make our own region's military and FA ministry suffer.

We can't ignore the very real fact that other regions consider us enemies and will take any opportunity to act on it. That takes a minister who doesn't shy away from the "negative" aspects of the game, because it's stressful or because they just prefer to only deal with the positive. I've seen that type of viewpoint play out a lot throughout my time in TSP, and it's been bad for us more often than not. Stressing positivity and making "negativity" taboo tends to mean that people are shunned for "being negative." The players pointing out red flags are often silenced as being paranoid pessimists, even when they're completely correct in their warnings. It's a slippery slope that can end up blinding people from knowing how everybody else is playing the game.

I think I have a good balance of optimism and pessimism. I'm optimistic about our allies and the prospects of deepening our relationships with them. I'm pessimistic about regions like Balder and Europeia, the IJCC alliance, and Gameplay culture, because you have to be willfully blind to see how these regions and people talk about us and think about us, and not see a very real threat. Above all else, the job of the government is to protect the region against threats.