Familiarizing Foreign Affairs
A Q&A with Ervald
Written by Ervald
Recently, I ran a Google Form asking people to submit questions they had about foreign affairs that I would answer as part of an EBC article. Here are the questions and answers below.
What does the average day-to-day work-life of a Europeian diplomat to another region look like?
Typically, pretty quiet. Most of the job involves being in a region’s discord server and paying attention to what is going on, chatting with people when you have the free time to do so, and understanding what the region is like. I am busy as MoFA but as ambassador to Forest, I chatted quite a bit during election season and learned more about how they elect their head of government. If they have a forum, that is an additional way of learning about the region. If the region is an up-and-coming UCR or GCR, it is even more important to pay attention to what is going on. If you can leave them a positive impression of Europeia, it helps sweeten the deal for proposing game nights or a treaty in the future. Additionally, what you find out could produce a very worthwhile conversation in the Watch that will benefit everyone in the FA apparatus.
Additionally, how might a citizen go from applying to the Ministry of FA and working up to becoming an ambassador?
You can apply to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs right here and immediately become an ambassador. Sometimes we don’t have ambassador vacancies, but in those situations, you can “double-up” with someone. You are assigned to a region that already has an ambassador but you get to access the same spaces that they do and you can ask them any foreign affairs question you have, whether in general or about the specific region you’re assigned to.
Why is FA so important?
It is mainly important for two reasons: regional security and cultural/resources exchange. With an active and coherent foreign affairs policy, we can easily make friends with others and in that regard, also make enemies. It is important for us to speak out when we need to, to intervene militarily when needed through the Europeian Republican Navy, and to forge treaties and partnerships. If we have no friends, who will help us in our darkest times? As an example, the Brotherhood of Malice wouldn’t seriously consider raiding us and if they did, they would be thwarted. But if we were to be isolationist and to make it difficult to make friends, we would be a big target and would have a harder time asking for help. On the other side of things in terms of resources, it makes it easier for us to have a game night which enlivens our citizenry or we can export Asperta to a region that needs help with recruitment tech. Improving ours and another region’s domestic activity is just as important as well in foreign affairs.
To what degree do you think having a historical knowledge of NationStates players and events is important to being in FA leadership? And how would you say that social players fare comparatively to others when in FA leadership roles?
Having a historical knowledge of NationStates players and events is somewhat important to being in FA leadership but not extremely. While Europeia’s foreign affairs apparatus is incredibly stable, not all regions are the same way. Many regions can make frequent or even erratic changes to their foreign affairs policy in the span of years, if not even months. For example, Kantrias used to be an ally of ours but is now a puppet of the Brotherhood of Malice or that we are now in Libcord when we would have never considered joining that many years ago. From my experience, other folks will give you historical knowledge if absolutely needed. If you want to do light reading, I would stick to finding out what happened over the past year or two. No more than 5 years ago at most. For your second question, social players are more effective than ever in this landscape of foreign affairs. Not only are negotiations happening entirely over Discord, social interactions between citizens and leaders are considered essential for developing a diplomatic relationship that can evolve into a treaty. However, there is a danger in being considered *too* much of a social player. Being too friendly with power players of a region that is PNGed or being active in multiple servers that all have FA issues with each other can lead leaders to question your loyalty or ability to be discreet. Cosmopolitan players and social players are often grouped together as one and the same in the modern NS landscape where regionalism is prioritized.
FA seems really intimidating - I don't know the history of a lot of the places we interact with and feel like that would make me look silly or stupid ... are there ways for me to contribute that won't leave me feeling that way? Or resources that are available that would help me understand what I need to know to do well in FA?
My response to this would be similar to what I said in the previous question: the present and recent events are more important than the distant past in foreign affairs. There are a few ways that you can learn more about foreign affairs in a low-committal manner. You can join the Watch which is a channel that people can talk about foreign affairs events and solicit different perspectives. Through that channel, there are multiple people including me that you can DM about your questions and we would gladly answer any of your questions about foreign affairs. Another great resource are EBC materials; we often talk about foreign affairs in articles and our weekly dispatches, the EBC Weekly Update. I use the EBC to go back years ago to find out when a region signed a treaty or what their government was like at the time.
How do you choose your Deputy Ministers typically? Is it experience or their drive? Or is it something you try to find in all people who could be your deputy minister(s)?
Both. I like to have a few Deputy Ministers and I want at least one of them to be someone experienced that can be trusted if I am on a LoA or can handle a complicated task and I want at least one Deputy Minister who has drive that I can designate as a “successor” and to highlight to future administrations of their potential to be a future Minister of Foreign Affairs. The modern set-up of FA DMs is they are in Tomlinson and can have access to more info than one could even receive in the Watch, it is more about trust rather than additional responsibilities besides being expected to chime in more and help out with putting together the monthly update. So, I am looking for folks to trust and to try to put together a pool of potential future MoFAs which can be a difficult task for some presidential candidates.
I've never paid a lot of attention to FA and don't really know what I would expect from it - what do you find enjoyable about participating in that side of NS?
What I enjoy the most about FA is the idea that my contributions will ripple beyond our discord server and forum and ultimately shape Europeia’s reputation, for the better. For a region that I have been in for almost 10 years, it is an honor to represent this region and show other people on NS our best and brightest qualities and folks. That can absolutely involve treaty negotiations but it can be as lighthearted as being on a radio show or playing a game with someone you have never met before, they come from regions with distinct cultures that look quite different from ours. That is just a fun experience. And my best days on the job are when we try to help out another region such as sending pilers to endorse their delegate or granting access to our recruitment tech and they say “thank you”. In those moments, I don’t feel like I am just making Europeia a better place, but also NS as a whole.
