And so, with my new, dashing foreign outfit does my campaign begin!

Sasha for Mofa
I am fairly new but by now, all of you have probably seen me around somewhere, whether as Sasha or West Carlisten. I have decided to run for MoFA, not because I have experience or want power or because I want to win - I want to get people talking about my ideas!

But first...
Conflict of interest statement:

Spoiler

I currently own the following six nations:
West Carlisten (my main nation)
Charles Rock
Free Annapingo Diverady
The Southern Bears
Northern Mermativa Gral
The Carinthian Subdivision of West Nauru
These puppets are used primarily for doing issues and spying on the telegrams of other regions.
I was for a very short time part of a region that a friend of mine created but that region has ceased to exist.
I do not own any other active puppets.

Update:
Due to developments in The East Pacific, I have created a new WA puppet there to support the transition, under orders of the TSP forces.
Sir Winnie
I apologise for having to update my CoI like this.

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Qualifications:

Spoiler

Quali-what now? I freely admit that I have very little experience which is why, if elected, my first step will be to appoint experienced deputy and advisors. Other than that, I intend to learn as much as I can and will try to listen ambassadors and the general region as much as possible.

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Key promises!

Spoiler

1. I will do my best to keep/build strong relations to regions that are democratic or fenda. Isolationism does not work, nor does raiding or being "flexible".
   
2. I will do my best to keep the region up-to-date on important FA developments, on the forum, Discord and for major events, the RMB.
   
3. I will do my best to be open to criticism and answer questions the region may have. I intend to have an AMA at least once a month. Transparency is important to me.
   
4. I will appoint, consult and listen to experienced advisors and do my best to cooperate with the other cabinet members.
   
5. I will do my best to establish an active and open ambassador unit.
   
6. I will try to build an active communications service for expatriates and ex-TSP members.
   
7. I will try to build a World Info Book. I believe that it would encourage growth and activity and help TSP build better connections.
   
8. And finally, if it turns out that, even with advice from other members, I do not have the time or experience necessary to fulfill my duties, I will not drag out but resign to ensure that TSP has a MoFA that can fulfill their duties.

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And now to explain some of my key ideas:
The World Info Book and Expat Service:

Spoiler

I intend to build a book in which we describe the culture and kind of RP other nations do, as well as their general political system, military alignment and how good their reltions with TSP are.

The purpose of this book is to:

1. help (new) people learn about the world and find places they actually like, to help them navigate Nationstates, to grow the site and increase activity - embracing TSP's role as a feeder
   
2. help people from all regions understand and interact the world better - increasing visibility of TSP and making TSP a valuable asset for the world
   
3. advertise the Expat service and showing TSP's general openness and friendliness - encouraging people to interact with TSP, to stay or return to TSP
   
4. create new jobs exploring the world and writing down facts that do not require much skill, knowledge or trust - creating activity, participation of new people and worldwide visibility
   

The Expat Service will try to find and connect to people who have left TSP. It will try:

1. to maintain an office where expats can register, be contacted and communicate with TSP without needing to be especially active in the region
   
2. to find and contact expats to inform them about these new developments
   
3. to create a news service, including telegram updates, that people can register for to stay up-to-date without needing to be active in TSP
   
4.  to use these connections to build better relations, learn more and cooperate more with other regions 
   

Overall my goal is to grow Nationstates and to use that general growth to grow and benefit TSP as well. We want to encourage people to enjoy and stay in TSP but we need to recognise that we are a feeder, a hub for new people and people travelling to other regions.
Helping new people find their way and place will grow all of Nationstates, not helping them to find new regions in order to keep them from leaving will simply make us and Nationstates less attractive and hurt our growth.

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Questions:

Spoiler

I think the idea for a world info book is interesting although I am curious as to how you plan on creating one? It brings to mind our regional dispatch initiative which despite months of hard work by certain individuals (*looks at Viet*) is still in progress. What is your timeline for this endeavour and how many people do you project will be needed?

Answer

1. I intend to have a master dispatch of course (as well as a central forum thread) which will link the individual articles
2. I intend to have a solid template for the articles that is easy to understand and use to allow anyone to submit one; there would of course be a general check whether the article is plausible (and I'd try to request a comment from the respective region) and of course,
3. there would be a place (or several) where people could submit updates and corrections;
4. as the WIB starts growing I would additionally create a Google Sheets document where different things (such as form of government, kind of roleplay, relationship to TSP, etc) are sortable, searchable, coloured and linked (of course this is one major reason why the template is necessary).
5. As for the timeline, it is very hard to say because it strongly depends on how many people, in TSP and abroad, respond to the initiative and contribute, whether answering questions/requests for comment or writing articles. Additionally, such a project will never be entirely finished because regions change, disappear and new regions are created.
6. As for staff, this is somewhat flexible I believe. In theory, this could be done by just one person if you don't care about how long it takes and whether articles are always 100% up to date. In practice, I'd like to have at least two other people that would be dedicated editors and/or travellers, several ambassadors (who'd be expected to write an article on their regions) and a number of people who are basically freelance writers. I think using a bit of crowdsourcing is the best way to try and do this.

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@Sir Winnie | Running for MoFA i have a few important questions for you
!) how do you plan on settling a hypothetical dispute between an allied region and TSP?
2) how long do you think making the world info book will take?
3) how do you plan on helping Daleks in the future?

Spoiler

1. That is a very general question. However, I would try to discuss it and try to find a decent, workable compromise to keep and hopefully strengthen the alliance. If that is not possible and the dispute is unresolvable however, I'd look at figuring out an amicable way to part or alter the alliance - to keep an alliance that both sides are utterly dissatisfied with would only sow distrust and make it hard for us to judge the reliability of our allies.
2. As I told Amerion, it's pretty difficult to give any estimates without knowing what the response and activity will be. Also, thus a project can never be entirely finished because regions are not static.
3. I intend to destroy the Cybermen.

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Also will you be giving out free cookies if you win?

Yes I will.
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(How) do you plan on coordinating with other ministries if necessary?

Spoiler

1. I intend to make sure that all ministries can see the general developments and plans in the FA and notify them about important things or things that touch their jurisdictions.
2. I will ask them for advice/comments on anything that touches their jurisdiction or that could benefit from joint organisation.
3. I will try to stay up-to-date on major plans of the other ministries and try to communicate with them regularly.
4. The organisation of actual joint projects depends very much on the kind of project, as well as time and resources - some projects might be led by one ministry with input from the other(s), others would be organised with both ministries as equal partners.

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Do you plan on working on the Worldbook even if you don't win?

I intend to ask Omega if I can join the FA in that case and I will try to see if I can find some support.
I think that acting on it alone, without any official authority or sufficient support however would doom the project. If I cannot find sufficient support, I will therefore not attempt to publish one, in order to not prejudice future efforts.
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While I do agree with some of your campaign ideas, in my opinion, The World Info Book and Expat Service ideas would seem to fall under the perview of the MoRA - not MoFA.

What makes you a better pick for MoFA than your competitor?

Spoiler

I believe that because the WIB is very much about external information and because it would rely on ambassadors and such, people with FA experience, it should primarily be an FA area.
The Expat service similarly is about foreign communications in my opinion.
However, I would try to cooperate closely with the MoRA and definitely try to avoid stepping on any toes there.

And as I said during the debate: I agree with Omega on most things regarding FA and I would love to have him as advisor. I also do not believe that I am currently particularly qualified because of my inexperience but I believe that I can learn, listen well to my advisors and the region and take criticism on board and thus make reasonable decisions. I would also try to have my group of advisors endorsed by an informal assembly resolution.
I am primarily running to make my ideas (the WIB, Expat Service, active, engaging FA that can offer jobs and activity to any TSP resident) heard and hopefully see them enacted.
I would like people to see this primarily as a referendum on the scale and engagement of the FA, rather than a vote about foreign policy because I do not believe that Oega and me really disagree regarding our attitudes towards foreign regions.

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I asked roughly this question to Omega, so feel obliged to do the same to you.
What is your opinion on building relations with UCRs? Do you feel as though that's something TSP could improve on, something which we're doing perfectly well as it is, or something you think we're doing too much of and we should focus on GCRs instead?
What regions would you like to see us develop closer ties with?

Spoiler

I think relationships with UCRs depend strongly on availability and to a lesser extent necessity (TSP needs some allies to survive):
TSP should primarily seek to ally itself with democratic and defender regions and with regions that don't require unreasonable terms or effort on behalf of TSP.
I think we should try to have good relations with as much of the world as we reasonably can, though other than our allies, I believe the most important group to improve relations with would be the GCRs.
I think we should try to reach out to all GCRs and try to have good relations with them as much as possible.
And one region we should definitely try to formalise relations with would be 10000 Islands.

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In the last election, our current minister campaigned on aligning with defender and defender-leaning regions; specifically XKI. If elected, would you continue this ideal? If any specific talks are already in the works, do you plan on continuing those talks/treaties?

Spoiler

As I've said before: yes, I am definitely for aligning with Defenders. I think we should focus on having allies that are Democratic or Defender and preferably both.
I have previously said that I am indeed in favour of better relations with that region.
Any talks that are ongoing would be continued of course, unless there was a very good reason not to. I would try to consult both my advisors and also the region as much as possible to ensure that our alliances are stable and have wide support.

—————
This wraps up my campaign post for now!

(This post was last modified: 10-14-2019, 09:49 AM by Sasha.)

Reply

I think the idea for a world info book is interesting although I am curious as to how you plan on creating one? It brings to mind our regional dispatch initiative which despite months of hard work by certain individuals (*looks at Viet*) is still in progress. What is your timeline for this endeavour and how many people do you project will be needed?

Reply

The answers to @Amerion and @TheBig0tt0's questions have been published in the main thread.

Reply

Just noting that I've updated with further questions from Discord/the RMB.

Reply

Do you plan on working on the Worldbook even if you don't win?

Reply

Do you plan on working on the Worldbook even if you don't win?

Answer is in the main post. Thanks for the question!

Reply

While I do agree with some of your campaign ideas, in my opinion, The World Info Book and Expat Service ideas would seem to fall under the perview of the MoRA - not MoFA.

What makes you a better pick for MoFA than your competitor?

"...if you're normal, the crowd will accept you. But if you're deranged, the crowd will make you their leader." - Christopher Titus
Deranged in NS since 2011

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Reply

While I do agree with some of your campaign ideas, in my opinion, The World Info Book and Expat Service ideas would seem to fall under the perview of the MoRA - not MoFA.

What makes you a better pick for MoFA than your competitor?

Answer is in the main thread! Thanks for the question!

Reply

I asked roughly this question to Omega, so feel obliged to do the same to you.
What is your opinion on building relations with UCRs? Do you feel as though that's something TSP could improve on, something which we're doing perfectly well as it is, or something you think we're doing too much of and we should focus on GCRs instead?
What regions would you like to see us develop closer ties with?

Guardian of the Cheese, Destroyer of furniture, Scourge of mice.

Reply

I asked roughly this question to Omega, so feel obliged to do the same to you.
What is your opinion on building relations with UCRs? Do you feel as though that's something TSP could improve on, something which we're doing perfectly well as it is, or something you think we're doing too much of and we should focus on GCRs instead?
What regions would you like to see us develop closer ties with?

Answered in main post! Thanks for the question!

Reply