With the Senate once again in the midst of overhauling our region's executive branch, I think the time has come to once again speak out on the state of Foreign Affairs in Europeia. As many have already stated, things are not good right now. In fact, it's quite possible that things haven't been good for a long time.
Right now I think it is fair to say that Europeian life is almost entirely unaffected by matters in other regions. There have been no major announcements from the Chief of State relating to anything outside of Europeia since January, when HEM relayed the events of a failed coup having taken place in The North Pacific. Our Council of Foreign Affairs has not made any announcements outside of opening and closing term speeches since January, either. January of 2019, that is.
Now, I know that speeches and policy announcements will be different from FA than any other Ministry due to the private nature of most of their work, however at what point does silence stop becoming a feature and start becoming a bug? Beyond that, how many citizens in the region notice or care when FA does have something to say? Last but not least, our region has been without a Grand Admiral for three weeks, with no nomination forthcoming, and little activity coming out of the Navy. The region has registered its displeasure for the state of affairs on the Chief of State, giving only the World Assembly Councillor and Chief of State himself an approval rating above 70 percent.
However, the problems with Foreign Affairs in our region are much larger than the current administration and to properly tackle this problem going forward, we need to understand why our region is so out of touch with Foreign Affairs, and why we don't care that we are.
Primarily, I think the biggest issue that there is no cost to ignoring FA. Before the executive split, there was a ceiling that prevented how high a citizen could rise through the ranks of the government with little to no experience in FA. That meant that ambitious citizens were forced to gain experience across a wide range of Ministries before being taken seriously as Presidential contenders. Now, a citizen has no ceiling, as they can rise to the position of First Minister without ever having so much as glanced at FA. In place of the ceiling, there is now a wall between domestic and foreign affairs, as citizens pick one side or the other to advance their career. However, way more often than not, new citizens choose domestic over foreign, which is why we consistently have seen citizens rise to First Minister within a year or less of their joining the region, but we have yet to see anyone new rise to Chief of State. In fact, we've hardly even had more than one candidate for Chief of State per election. On top of all of that, citizens don't even vote for Chief of State directly, passing the responsibility on to their Senators, so the cost for ignoring FA is even smaller than one might think. If one chose to ignore everything related to FA in Europeia, the downside would be... what, exactly?
On a more targeted level, the question we should be asking is why do citizens consistently choose to avoid FA when joining our region? What about it has put so many off? In short, it has been advertised as a place with a steep learning curve, and with high stakes. Not advertised explicitly, but certainly by association. When you think of FA, it is easy to think of the highest levels right away and get scared in a way that Comms or Culture don't. Unfortunately, this brings us to our next big problem: most Europeians don't know what FA entails, so they assume the worst. I could launch into explanations of what FA actually looks like day-to-day, but these articles by Aex and Sopo do a wonderful job of painting that picture, so I will leave it to them. Some important quotes to draw your attention to, though, include these:
"Now when people ask me what I look for in someone who could be a leader in our foreign affairs, or what I think is most important for someone who wants to be a leader I tell them three things: 1) temperament, 2) knowledge of our foreign policy and history, and 3) the ability to have time to waste. " - Aex
"The knowledge, most of which is just a Discord message away, is not nearly as important as enthusiasm for Europeia and our values, a willingness to stand up for what’s right, and a dash of charisma and negotiating skills." - Sopo
Taken together, I think these quotes do a wonderful job making it clear that Foreign Affairs, like any aspect of the region, requires a skillset, but that skillset does not take years of training, because most of the skills you likely already have, or are taking the time to develop already. So, trust me when I say that you probably have a firmer grasp on our Foreign Affairs than you think, just by participating in our region consistently. Of course, that's not everything, but the same is true for the domestic Ministries. One does not have to have served as Minister of Communications to know when an article is good or bad, or even be able to engage with that article. All you need is what you already bring to the table. Refining your skills is important, and takes time, but is not nearly as hard as you may imagine.
With the pep talk and crash course out of the way, where does that leave us? How can we reintroduce FA to the region in a way that makes sense and is beneficial? Make in mandatory to attain this knowledge to reach our pinnacle, make people face their fears so they can see that they aren't so bad. Raise the cost of ignoring FA. We're spinning out of control right now, with no reliable resources coming in to save our FA, and Europeia without FA is a much worse region. Sopo explains how our region suffers without FA in this broadcast (starting at 28:35). The benefits include citizen recruitment and reputation building, among others, and I highly recommend listening to Sopo for the four minutes it takes to get those points across.
To conclude, our region is at a critical point where our Foreign Affairs are suffering, and on the point of collapse, and if we care at all about making FA matter again, we have to act now, or risk losing a lot of what makes our region the amazing place that it is. Until next time, this is Calvin Coolidge, waving a giant flag.
Right now I think it is fair to say that Europeian life is almost entirely unaffected by matters in other regions. There have been no major announcements from the Chief of State relating to anything outside of Europeia since January, when HEM relayed the events of a failed coup having taken place in The North Pacific. Our Council of Foreign Affairs has not made any announcements outside of opening and closing term speeches since January, either. January of 2019, that is.
Now, I know that speeches and policy announcements will be different from FA than any other Ministry due to the private nature of most of their work, however at what point does silence stop becoming a feature and start becoming a bug? Beyond that, how many citizens in the region notice or care when FA does have something to say? Last but not least, our region has been without a Grand Admiral for three weeks, with no nomination forthcoming, and little activity coming out of the Navy. The region has registered its displeasure for the state of affairs on the Chief of State, giving only the World Assembly Councillor and Chief of State himself an approval rating above 70 percent.
However, the problems with Foreign Affairs in our region are much larger than the current administration and to properly tackle this problem going forward, we need to understand why our region is so out of touch with Foreign Affairs, and why we don't care that we are.
Primarily, I think the biggest issue that there is no cost to ignoring FA. Before the executive split, there was a ceiling that prevented how high a citizen could rise through the ranks of the government with little to no experience in FA. That meant that ambitious citizens were forced to gain experience across a wide range of Ministries before being taken seriously as Presidential contenders. Now, a citizen has no ceiling, as they can rise to the position of First Minister without ever having so much as glanced at FA. In place of the ceiling, there is now a wall between domestic and foreign affairs, as citizens pick one side or the other to advance their career. However, way more often than not, new citizens choose domestic over foreign, which is why we consistently have seen citizens rise to First Minister within a year or less of their joining the region, but we have yet to see anyone new rise to Chief of State. In fact, we've hardly even had more than one candidate for Chief of State per election. On top of all of that, citizens don't even vote for Chief of State directly, passing the responsibility on to their Senators, so the cost for ignoring FA is even smaller than one might think. If one chose to ignore everything related to FA in Europeia, the downside would be... what, exactly?
On a more targeted level, the question we should be asking is why do citizens consistently choose to avoid FA when joining our region? What about it has put so many off? In short, it has been advertised as a place with a steep learning curve, and with high stakes. Not advertised explicitly, but certainly by association. When you think of FA, it is easy to think of the highest levels right away and get scared in a way that Comms or Culture don't. Unfortunately, this brings us to our next big problem: most Europeians don't know what FA entails, so they assume the worst. I could launch into explanations of what FA actually looks like day-to-day, but these articles by Aex and Sopo do a wonderful job of painting that picture, so I will leave it to them. Some important quotes to draw your attention to, though, include these:
"Now when people ask me what I look for in someone who could be a leader in our foreign affairs, or what I think is most important for someone who wants to be a leader I tell them three things: 1) temperament, 2) knowledge of our foreign policy and history, and 3) the ability to have time to waste. " - Aex
"The knowledge, most of which is just a Discord message away, is not nearly as important as enthusiasm for Europeia and our values, a willingness to stand up for what’s right, and a dash of charisma and negotiating skills." - Sopo
Taken together, I think these quotes do a wonderful job making it clear that Foreign Affairs, like any aspect of the region, requires a skillset, but that skillset does not take years of training, because most of the skills you likely already have, or are taking the time to develop already. So, trust me when I say that you probably have a firmer grasp on our Foreign Affairs than you think, just by participating in our region consistently. Of course, that's not everything, but the same is true for the domestic Ministries. One does not have to have served as Minister of Communications to know when an article is good or bad, or even be able to engage with that article. All you need is what you already bring to the table. Refining your skills is important, and takes time, but is not nearly as hard as you may imagine.
With the pep talk and crash course out of the way, where does that leave us? How can we reintroduce FA to the region in a way that makes sense and is beneficial? Make in mandatory to attain this knowledge to reach our pinnacle, make people face their fears so they can see that they aren't so bad. Raise the cost of ignoring FA. We're spinning out of control right now, with no reliable resources coming in to save our FA, and Europeia without FA is a much worse region. Sopo explains how our region suffers without FA in this broadcast (starting at 28:35). The benefits include citizen recruitment and reputation building, among others, and I highly recommend listening to Sopo for the four minutes it takes to get those points across.
To conclude, our region is at a critical point where our Foreign Affairs are suffering, and on the point of collapse, and if we care at all about making FA matter again, we have to act now, or risk losing a lot of what makes our region the amazing place that it is. Until next time, this is Calvin Coolidge, waving a giant flag.
