joWhatup;10618 said:
That may be. While I do not deny your successes during your term, there were, from my perspective at least, certainly also some issues and I consider it worth the time and effort to request clarification about what your ideas are to prevent such issues from occurring in the future.
We don't have all that many ambassadors. Do you have an idea how to advertise the Department more, and recruit new ones?
The only thing about my term I would regard as unsuccessful was my failure to appoint ambassadors. It wasn't ideal but I think you've overblown it massively. The department wasn't a mess under me: it can't've been, it achieved a great deal with foreign regions. That is its mission. Ambassadors are-except in cases where they're required by treaties-a nicety, not a necessity. That said, if there is a shortage of them at the minute that will be solved in short order now we have a government that intends to re-engage with the region. I think that if we ask people, they will come.
Doing so has served me well domestically. On the interregional stage, however, compromises are more practical.
While fair, a minister of Foreign Affairs in particular needs to be capable of working closely with the Prime Minister and the rest of the Cabinet, as opposed to pushing their own views for foreign policy in opposition to the Prime Minister. While I agree that Sylven could be uncommunicative at times, it seems odd to me that you took this question to bash Sylven, which has little to do with my actual comments, and accuse a fellow Lazarene of an obvious conflict of interest, which also does not respond to my concerns.
...Much like your criticism of Sylven's term as Prime Minister, this does not respond or answer the questions and concerns brought up.
It was you who brought up my previous service as a reason to doubt my capabilities. You may not like the explanation for its few shortcomings but it's true nonetheless. My energy for the department was often wasted trying to dissuade Sylven from making the mistakes she was making. This is why second priorities like ambassador programs fell by the wayside.
Sylven appointed me so that I could advise her, not to tell her only what she wanted to hear. I advised her.
If you're going to accuse me of leaving the department "inactive and disorganised", Jo, I think you can probably sit and take a bit of what you're giving.
TSP is the most obvious candidate for an alliance because we already have an NAP with them and because, unless something has changed drastically, there should be a clear road to one.
We should aim to build ties with that section of the world because we're a neutral region. We already have at least two raider allies, we ought to diversify.
I regard them as reliable because they've always been reliable in the past.
Plans for UCR alliances, which I did not disregard last time, are currently being handled by somebody else.
Do our ties with these regions need strengthening? I will work to maintain them, certainly.