Join the new world

Our Foreign Affairs are pretty straight to the point. We have our allies, our friends with benefits, and our enemies. I highly doubt anything we've really done over the last two years has really changed that, outside of Spain and Poland deciding themselves to become more friendly with us. What it takes to run a functional FA Department is merely people with time to chat on IRC, and writing a few articles. Otherwise, it's mainly a few odds and ends positions, regardless of what some might tout as being revolutionary or functional.

So, in regards to how a Foreign Affairs Department would look like, here's a basic outline of what I'd like to do with them:

1. Bring back the FA Department writing articles about actual relationships and wars, which communicates to the Public why the Government has the allies it does. While our current articles are mainly written to outline different perspectives and various countries across the Globe, there is still a large Meghan in the mix, in that our citizens really aren't getting the dirt on who is who to the United Kingdom, and why. We have the current Secretary General of ONE, and I doubt many of our citizens even know who that is.

I find that to be a problem. I'd not only like to spotlight those UKers on an International Stage doing great things while representing this country, but I'd also like to spotlight those doing good at home, too, working hard to help us succeed.

2. The FA Department really only needs about 6 people in it. One person to write articles, an Envoy to the Countries of each major alliance, and two Ministers to ensure that our time zones and activity is covered. The President does a large majority of the Foreign Affairs work himself, since most countries prefer dealing directly with the person in charge, so having more than that, frankly, is over-doing it, and that labor can be better used in other Ministries. Even if you tried to carry more than that, they usually go inactive by the end of the month anyway, so there's not much point in having 10+ people work there.

3. Our approach to foreign affairs is pretty simple, and has been for a very long time regardless of how complicated some make it sound. We fight for our allies, we defend those who defend us, and we find a middle ground to those who don't fit into that category. It takes very little to talk to someone respectfully from a foreign nation, even if you disagree, in how you see things. If you disagree, fine. It's a game, and it will get settled whether that's diplomatically or on the battlefield. If they win, OK. If they lose, great, but in the end, that's why we play the game.



4. Contrary to popular belief, our groundwork starts at home. We have to have our citizenry on board with our goals and objectives before any Dick and Thomas minister can go around and try to accomplish them. If our citizens are hell bent on one goal, and one goal alone (which is usually LOLIRELANDMUSTKILLIRELANDHAVETOKILLIRELAND), then they're not going to hit the right battles. They're not going to help you accomplish your goals of helping Bosnia or Serbia or Poland or Spain or whoever needs it, and that is the biggest, most important job of the FA Team. If we can't accomplish that, then we can't really do anything worthwhile anyway.

5. One of the main changes I intend to have this month is that I will open the Cabinet channel to the public. For years, myself included, we've run a closed channel with just the Ministers/Advisors and CP, and most if not all scheming has been done in that channel. Once those people have their say, then the idea goes to the public, but the groundwork is the most important part. With an open cabinet that anyone is free to join, you can see the daily discussion, join in, offer your ideas, ask for support for things you want to do, and so on. With an open Cabinet channel, you will all be able to directly contribute to what the Government is doing because, well, it's your Gorram Government.

6. Everyone talks about what country offers this and our discussions with this other person, but in reality, you never quite know what is said. As an open Government, all negotiations between nations will be held in our FA channel, with one change. Only the representatives that should be speaking (ie CP, MoFA of both countries) will have voice, the rest will be held voiceless but be allowed to attend the meetings. That way, someone from France can't say we did XYZ when in reality we didn't, just because they weren't there for negotiations. In short, allowing anyone to attend (and just not speak) will be more transparent and open. Who doesn't want that?



Now, you might ask what will be done for the military. What can I possibly do to change the military?

Well, the idea is pretty simple. We're divided among military, political MU's, independent MU's, and so on. The idea I'd like to put together is having them all work together, and remove the division. Now, granted, it's a rough idea. It's not something you can do in a day, but the idea is rather simple. Supplies are done based on the fights you have. Orders are based on current priority, not what was hot three hours ago. They can be anywhere in the world. Each MU gets same weapons as Military, considering we all pay the same taxes. I don't see the need for division anymore. We're better fighting together, side by side, for the same goal, so why not use the same supplies (funneled through a couple of people), in the battles that actually need it.



I know a decent amount of you won't see the benefit in that, but frankly, I'm not bothered by that right now. We need to work towards unifying our fighting force. It's already small enough, we can't make it even smaller by adding in useless divisions.

See, I didn't have that much for military. :-3

So that's Party #1. We'll get to Party #2 tomorrow, with the Domestics and Finance/Economics. While some of you might not keep an open mind, I'm hoping a vast majority of you, who aren't already sucked into the same ol' can see that we just need to work differently. We need to try different. We need to be different.

Thanks for your time,
Dishmcds
UKRP Presidential Candidate