| Lord Ravenclaw - Foreign Affairs - Experience, Dependability and Credibility |
Hello everyone,
This is a new situation for me, in so much that I have not taken part in an election for Minister of Foreign Affairs within NationStates before, but if nothing else, I enjoy a challenge; and I feel that taking part in this election is something new, something challenging and indeed something rather unexpected (to myself as well, as I was very unsure of whether to accept the nomination/second that I received from SouthernBellz and Hobbes). I'll talk briefly about myself, my qualifications and my diplomatic experience that make me suitable to fill the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs, all of which is detailed within my Conflict of Interest Disclosure, which I invite you to peruse at your leisure during the course of this election. After that, I'll talk a little bit about my view of feeder-sinker foreign affairs, diplomacy and the dynamic I'd like to see in the coming months, and my own views on some of the questions asked to those who have also declared their candidacies for this office. I'm more than happy to take and answer questions, or discuss possible scenarios *looks at a certain person who is rubbing their hands in glee* although I'd recommend that you don't try and use any of the past scenarios I've used to test candidates, as I have all of the answers recorded on my Google Drive. I don't think that there's anything else I have to say in this part, so it's time to get cracking onto the next section. If you get bored at anytime, please note that there are refreshments along the southern wall. Joshua Ravenclaw
Quote:I'll talk briefly about myself, my qualifications and my diplomatic experience that make me suitable to fill the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs, all of which is detailed within my Conflict of Interest Disclosure, which I invite you to peruse at your leisure during the course of this election. So to get started, I'll talk a little about myself - who I am, for those of you not already aware, my personal stances and opinions of certain things and some of my history. My name is Joshua Ravenclaw, often known as Lord Ravenclaw but I'm also known as Raven to those who know me well. Besides having a real dislike of talking about myself, which is awkward considering I'm involved with politics, I'm best known for being a diplomat formerly in service to the Kemetic Republic and later the Fraternal Order (still dislike the name!) of Osiris where over a period of eighteen months, I oversaw and managed regional foreign affairs, diplomacy and foreign policy to best benefit the needs of the region and its community to great personal and professional success during that period. I have been active in feeder and sinker politics for about two years now, my start came in Osiris - where I started as a member of the Diplomatic Service, to become a Deputy Minister, and then in November 2012, my first appointment as Minister under Pharaoh George Holland-Stark. In that first sitting, as I served until July 2013, I surpassed all previous diplomats who had the position - both in activity, and length of service. I retired from Osiris at the end of May 2014, with not just one award for my foreign policy and service to Osiris, but four. One of which had been the highest honour of the Kemetic Republic and before that event that saw a few of us being awarded with it, had never been given to anyone outside of former Pharaohs. Above all else, following my election as Pharaoh in January, I oversaw and directly worked to restore the credibility of what was the then South Sudan of NationStates, considered to be a failed-state by many. I succeeded, and it was, and remains, my greatest personal achievement in the world of diplomacy: the recognition of a new order of Government for Osiris from its historical allies, and family. The North Pacific, The South Pacific, The Peoples Republic of Lazarus, Balder, The West Pacific and the East Pacific and the Pacific. My only regret was that the Rejected Realms did not recognise Osiris during my tenure, but I understand that the time was not right. Many from those regions have said that my election and leadership in Osiris were part of the primary reasons they recognised the new government, recognising that I had used my own credibility to ensure the new way gained was able to survive and grow to fruition. I left a strong and capable region at the end of my reign, no longer in need of a Diplomat being a caretaker Pharaoh to restore its credibility and capability and my successor Severisen continued that - improving in areas that I am not suited to, such as internal affairs and culture (to this day, he has my utmost respects for being the political ying to my yang in that regard. It is part of the reason I have a lot of respect for people such as Escade and Kringalia who dedicate themselves to Regional Affairs much akin to my dedication to Foreign Affairs and diplomacy). Aside from that, I am also part of the Diplomatic Service of the Commonwealth of Equilism, I was an advisor to the previous Delegate of the East Pacific, Ramaeus Montresor on Foreign Policy and during the Osiran-Lazarene war, I acted as an intermediary between the East and South Pacifics to ensure that they were not dragged in against their wishes - to the great consternation of some who were not pleased with my "meddling". What they called "meddling", I called preventing a situation from escalating further beyond the current mess. Suffice to say, I'm very happy to say that regardless of efforts to the contrary to force both regions into a conflict they wanted nothing to do with, a greater crisis was averted and when I made my feelings known in Osiris about the attitudes of some within the Government and about the (phoney) "war", I was declared Persona Non Grata, and unwelcome in Osiris by the Pharaoh at the time, Cormac. Which was quite a blow, and I would be remiss if I didn't thank Unibot for being a soothing presence when I told him about it and it was a comforting discussion to have at the time as he and I have quite the mutually antagonistic history but we also have a shared history through events in Osiris. In terms of Gameplay, I class myself as "Neutral", although I am able to adapt the needs of a foreign policy to the needs of the region. I've often come under fire though for not being fervent enough, and some people have attempted to use my moderate stance as reason enough to try and remove me from posts (they failed). My moderate stance means that I can look at a proposed policy or treaty and judge it on its merits; I do not fall into a hive mindset, nor do I automatically judge something based on hearsay: I give it a sound and honest appraisal, using my own judgement, experience, personal opinions and consultations from those who are involved, in that case, the Delegate, or the Envoy who brought me the news. In this case, the Assembly would also play a role in deciding foreign policy and very recently has - The South Pacific standing for itself, rather than some virtues of Independence speaks a lot, especially as I attended said conference recently and found it rather tedious to try and keep track of the walls of post detailing the definitions of Independence. It was like this campaign only a thousand times longer, with less comic relief and more "You will die reading this. And you will like it, or else" sort of thing. My biggest pet peeve with Diplomacy is a little something I have tried for months to break the habits that some diplomats fall into doing: reactive diplomacy, also known as "Say however you feel when something goes wrong!" Reactionary Diplomacy often causes more damage than it fixes and often devolves into emotive and angry exchanges between those involved. It isn't something I'm prone to, I learnt a long time ago, that taking a step back to deliver and measured response does more benefit than crying and screaming "I HATE YOU! WHY DON'T YOU DO WHAT I WANT?!" at your opponent (go figure?).
Quote:After that, I'll talk a little bit about my view of feeder-sinker foreign affairs, diplomacy and the dynamic I'd like to see in the coming months, and my own views on some of the questions asked to those who have also declared their candidacies for this office. The most common theme I've seen so far is that The South Pacific is under invasion from a foreign threat. Not all that different to some of the more recent candidates of The North Pacific's Judicial Election saying that the Oligarchy in the North controls everything. All they achieved was to make several people ask them where they bought their tin-foil hat from, and do they have enough to cook a roast in yet. Essentially, I find the idea that The South Pacific is under foreign invasion to be complete hogwash. Then I find another point saying that "GCR politics corrupts". I therefore ask the question: Why are you running for election if it will corrupt you? Have you actually spent any time in multiple communities or have you just experienced one and judged them all to be the same? If so, then you really shouldn't be in this election - the Minister of Foreign Affairs is meant to advance the cause of the regions foreign interests, not automatically make sweeping judgements about other regions. I have spoken at length with people over the last few days outlining my thoughts on where The South Pacific can make progress, where it can improve and where it needs to frame it on the wall with a gold star; and there's been some interesting discussions between myself and my various advisers over it. Firstly, I would like to see The South Pacific stop worrying what regions outside of our primary area of interest - feeders - think about us. We are not beholden to any other regions unless they are treatied allies - and even then, the dynamic between us should be as friends: accepting of our strengths, weaknesses, differences and similarities. We've come a long way with Glen running the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and we aren't so worried about public opinion from places where it doesn't matter anymore... but I've seen candidates mentioning it - stop. Our direction is our own, and the only people who have any weight in their concerns are citizens and treatied allies when shared in an appropriate environment. No one else. Secondly, we have historical connections with The North Pacific that we should make greater use of in order to ensure that we get the best results possible for both of our communities, I also think that our communities can work closer than we currently do, and there are good areas where an exchange of information would benefit both of us immensely, an example is our military: The North Pacific Army is fielding record numbers of Soldiers in recent weeks. I saw two dozen of them in The East Pacific supporting Xoriet's ascension to the Delegacy - that is progress! QuietDad and his staff have been brilliant for the South Pacific Special Forces over recent months, but a closer cooperative relationship between us and our oldest ally is imperative to improving this and helping us being able to field as many soldiers during similar events. I've got a lot more to say about our historical relationship with our Northern sibling, but that is for another time. I am fortunate to have a strong history with the North Pacific due to past employment in their Government, as well as my time at the helm of Osiran Foreign Affairs - which saw Osiris as a strong and valuable ally for both The North and The South Pacifics for much of my tenure there. There have been times in the past that have seen The South Pacific enjoy strong and open relations with our Eastern and Western siblings - there is room for us to find a sense of unity, and communication again. Just by spending some time with our sisters, we can learn about what their communities are working on, and there are a lot of ways our community can positively influence them, and theirs, ours. We shouldn't fear sharing more of our successes with our sisters, and we should also be welcome to them sharing their successes with us. One final thing - the strongest alliances are born between communities that work for it. Shared cultures, histories and friendships will make things stronger in the long run. We cannot expect other feeders and sinkers to respect us simply because we are a feeder and sinker, we need to go further and carve out a relationship between us. Those relationships, if strong enough will be worth their weight in gold, and if we are true to each other, then our friendships will stand the tests of time. We've seen in the past how our relationships haven't been so fulfilling, The West Pacific in 2013 refused to recognise the legitimacy of the off-site community due to how they hold the power of the delegacy as sacrosanct. That is their right. However, following the above point about actual relationships in the past would have seen their stance be different: they would have stood alongside us, fought with us and worked to liberate us. As it stands, that didn't happen and there is still bad feeling between us to my sadness. I won't actually post much more as I can't concentrate right now. I've just gotten word that my sister has given birth, and I'm now a proud uncle for the third time, and the second time in a week! Granted, the second time is because my best friend gave birth last Tuesday. But still! I would like to conclude this with a reminder that I am more than open to questions, please feel free to post them below or contact me privately if you wish it. As ever, I invite you to take a read of my Conflict of Interest Disclosure. [Image: aFKiRON.png]
That is...one gigantic campaign platform.
 Best of luck, and I'll have some questions for you, as soon as I finish answering the ones for my own campaign! 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
And worst of all, it's half done compared to what I originally planned to put in it. The arrival of my niece killed any chance of me being able to concentrate long enough to do it
Congrats on the uncle-hood
 Not to be too business, but can I get your take on TSP relations with UCRs?
-tsunamy
[forum admin]
You can. User Created Regions come in all shapes and sizes - they each have their merits and their problems. I do not have an overarching opinion on the collective world of User Created Regions, I prefer to experience their offerings, share my findings with others and then make a decision on said region that way.
So I would need a more specific region to comment on to give you a proper answer 
Time for Questions!
1. Why are you running for Minister of Foreign Affairs? 2. Even if we have embassies with the West Pacific, our relationship has been non existent due to their refusal to recognise our legitimate government. How would you address that issue? 3. Where do you see our relationship with Europeia headed, considering recent developments in it and how we were treated by them? 4. Would you say that Sandaoguo is leaving our foreign affairs in a better or worse condition than when he was first elected Foreign Minister? Or are we the same? 5. If the Ministry of Regional Affairs wishes to organise join festivals with our allies and potential allies, would you be willing to help with reaching out those regions and contacting the appropriate officials? 6. How would a Ravenclaw Ministry be different from a TAC or a Llamas Ministry? Thanks in advance for answering and best of luck! 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
For me, I'm not really sure what a Raven ministry would be like. I think it would be useful for some retrospect. The questions I want to ask could be difficult to answer, because you won't be privy to the exact situations, what people said, etc. But try your best!
1. How would you have reacted, if you were MoFA, to Kraketopia saying that we needed to pull out of Lazarus' Regional Sovereignty Conference, in order to show the participants of the Independence Conference that we were serious about their conference? 2. How would you have handled the dissolution of our treaty with TNI? Both domestically and inter-regionally? Granted a lot of things would have went differently with you as MoFA, because a lot of what happened has to do with how OnderKelkia, the UIAF leaders, Europeia leaders, etc. perceived TSP's leadership. But, all else being equal, how would you have reacted?
Ya said ya'd briefly talk about yourself and your qualifications. How can we possibly elect a blatant liar or someone with only the vaguest grasp of the definition of English words to our highest diplomatic office?
The Third Imperium
Journalist, South Pacific Independent News Network (SPINN) Provost, Magisterium Sergeant, East Pacific Sovereign Army Journalist, East Pacific News Service Foreign Affairs Minister, The West Pacific |
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