NPA Ammendment

[Haor Chall]

This here is an ammendment to the Article III and TNP Law 7. This is linked with the Appointed Cabinet ammendment, and makes some changes to the role of the MoD. As the MoD is appointed, this ammendment creates the position of General of the NPA as a full position with outlined responsibilities, to be directly elected within the NPA. It should be mentioned that under this ammendment the MoD, although appointed (if the other ammendment passses), will still be required to be a member of the NPA.

The way I see the duties split are as follows; the MoD will be responsible primarily for policy- they will liaise and co-ordinate with our allies, work on military agreements and treaties and most importantly- will be responsible for recruitment and for publicising the NPA better. Acceptance of people into the NPA will also remain with the MoD. The General will then be responsible for, and be able to focus entirely on, the day to day running, organisation and deployment of the NPA.

This ammendment also makes a few minor changes, like removing a reference to RV's as well. It also removed the bit about the Auxiliary, because AFAIK it doesn't actually exist any more and the main part about it was removed earlier. I've also added a section on authorising deployments, because I couldn't actually find anywhere where it was explicitly stated in the Legal Code or Consititution.



ARTICLE III Section 2
5) Minister of Defense.
A - The Minister shall be responsible for the recruitment and retention of members of the North Pacific Army, and for the protection of the region and its allies.
B - The Minister shall work with the Minister of External Affairs to identify threats to the security of the Region, and to advise the Prime Minister and the Cabinet on proposed strategic alliances for regional protection purposes.



TNP LAW 7
Ministry of Defense

Section 1. Organization of North Pacific Army

A - The Minister of Defense (MOD) may organize The North Pacific Army (NPA) in any type of military system he/she would like with the support of the majority of the NPA.
B - The Minister may choose a Position to oversee the everyday deployment of the Army or may keep this position for him/her self. Any person selected to hold said position would have no authority to propose or accept any Treaties between governments or organizations.The duties of the position will be specified by the MoD[/s]

A - The Minister of Defense is the overall head of the North Pacific Army and has the duties outlined in the Constitution.
B - The General of the North Pacific Army is the most senior military member of the Army. He will also hold the position of Deputy Minister of Defense.
C - The General is responsible for the organisation, structure and everyday deployment of the Army. He may organize The North Pacific Army in any type of military system he/she would like with the support of the majority of the Army.

Section 2.The Auxiliary Branch of The North Pacific Army.

A - There shall be an Auxiliary branch of the North Pacific Army (NPA).
B- This branch will be under the control of the Minister of Defense (or chosen subordinate) and will not have a separate leader. The specific name of the auxiliary branch is decided by the Minister of Defense with majority support from the NPA members.
C - Members of the auxiliary branch will not possess the right of NPA members to be exempt from disclosing to the Minister of Immigration and Internal Affairs the identity of the player's UN nation with respect to their voter registration
D - Members of the auxiliary branch are not required to post a pledge stating their acceptance of the NPA Code, but must be registered voters.

Section 3. NPA and Auxiliary Member Status

A - The MOD is responsible for updating and organizing the List of NPA members/Auxiliary no less frequently than once a Month. He/she must check the status of all such members and is responsible for demoting members to the Auxiliary branch or promoting a member's status as a full NPA member.
B - Prior to any election or referenda, or at the request of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Immigration (MOIA&I) or the Court of the North Pacific, the MOD must confirm the UN nation of any NPA member to the MOIA&I or to the Court. Until said confirmation, the vote of a NPA member may not be counted and the NPA member may not be selected for jury service.
C - Members seeking to join the North Pacific Army (NPA) are required to be registered voters Regional Assembly members prior to making application to the NPA. Acceptance shall be decided by the Minister of Defense and not by the deputy or other designee of the Minister of Defense.
D - All accepted members of the North Pacific Army shall be required to post their pledge in acceptance of the NPA Code. Until said pledge is posted an accepted member cannot be considered a full NPA Member. If the required pledge has not been posted with in a week, the accepted member will automatically be placed in the Auxiliary branch of the North Pacific Army removed from the NPA.



Section 5. NPA Endorsement and election of candidates for Minister General and Deputy Minister of Defense.

A - To stand for election as the Minister of Defense General of the North Pacific, a candidate must be a member of the NPA and be nominated by themselves or by two other members of the NPA.
B - Members of the North Pacific Army may endorse one or more candidates that stand for election as Minister of DefenseGeneral of the NPA in the same election.
C - Elections for the General of the North Pacific Army will be held two weeks after a General Election has been held.
D - Only members of the NPA may vote in the election. All other voting procedures as laid down in the Constitution and Legal Code are followed.
E - The person elected as General of the North Pacific Army will also hold the position of Deputy Minister of Defense.

Section 6. Deployment of the North Pacific Army

A - The deployment of the NPA outside The North Pacific must first be authorised by the Minister of Defense, the General of the NPA or any other senior member of the NPA who the General, with the agreement of the Minister, has delegated this responsibility to.
B - Deployment to treatied partners or allies, where following the stipulations of a treaty or agreement, or deployment on training missions to regions created for that specific purpose or to the war zones, only requires the authorisation of the personnel outlined in Part A.
C - Deployment to any other region outside The North Pacific in addition requires the approval of the Security Council.

 

[Grosseschnauzer]

Parts of this proposal are pre-mature, and should be held back until and unless the alleged proposal for appointed positions occurs. There is no assurance that the appointed proposal will be enacted. I wouuld prefer that we only go forward with the changes needed with the system as it currently exists.

And please, learn to spell "amendment" correctly. There is no double "m" in the word.

 

[Gaspo]

I don't like the part about the General being Deputy at the same time. I know having a Deputy and a General adds another layer, and usually I'm against that, but often the best-qualified Generals are involved in the region in other ways. For example, I currently hold the rank of General, but I'm MoIIA. Requiring a political office for the General of the NPA will result in either a person involved in the region not being able to hold a different political office, or whoever is named General not being the most-qualified person for the job. Just my $.02, I don't like tying Military and Politics together too much.

 

[Monte Ozarka]

Everything that Gaspo said. I would like to see our system become more like a civil service. I'm sure that three years ago, I said that each minister is like a little warlord over their little kingdom. It's little different now. Which begs the question of how one gets to be promoted to General.

If we make it an apolitical position, I suggest that the General be elected by simple NPA plurality + MoD approval in case of retirement, inactivity, or misconduct. Anyone can seek the Generalship at any time, provided that they win a two-thirds supermajority in the NPA vote. Anyone can seek to remove the sitting General at any time, with the same rules. (In short, challengers are welcome all the time, everytime.)MoD approval of these votes has to be obtained for the outcome to be valid. MoD has power to make all interim/emergency fillings.

If you'd like, the JAG can be a group/person that is neither the General nor MoD and has the added responsibility of investigating whether MoD policy is being followed by the General and subordinates and can proscribe punishments including loss of rank (even for the General). But, this sounds complicated, and if our region's legal system is a bit of a mess, the military shouldn't even attempt it.

Also, I really don't like

C - Deployment to any other region outside The North Pacific in addition requires the approval of the Security Council.

...but then again, it's just my opinion, and I know many disagree with me.

 

[Gaspo]

How does the official title of General of the NPA factor in with the current rank system? My rank currently is full General, but I'm not "The General", as I was back in 2006 under Dalimbar.

How would the two systems coexist, or would the entire rank system be replaced?

 

[Haor Chall]

I don't like the part about the General being Deputy at the same time. I know having a Deputy and a General adds another layer, and usually I'm against that, but often the best-qualified Generals are involved in the region in other ways. For example, I currently hold the rank of General, but I'm MoIIA. Requiring a political office for the General of the NPA will result in either a person involved in the region not being able to hold a different political office, or whoever is named General not being the most-qualified person for the job. Just my $.02, I don't like tying Military and Politics together too much.

I do agree, I wasn't too sure about that bit and my reasoning was to try and keep down the number of offices. However, I suppose if the General is able to hold another position as well it kind of works out the same anyway. Not only that but I agree that trying to keep the politics out of the military is a good idea.

Everything that Gaspo said. I would like to see our system become more like a civil service. I'm sure that three years ago, I said that each minister is like a little warlord over their little kingdom. It's little different now. Which begs the question of how one gets to be promoted to General.

Agree totally, which is a large part of the idea behind this and the appointed cabinet idea. This way the MoD will deal with the more 'political' parts, whilst the General is then free to concentrate on the military and technical aspects of running the NPA.

If we make it an apolitical position, I suggest that the General be elected by simple NPA plurality + MoD approval in case of retirement, inactivity, or misconduct. Anyone can seek the Generalship at any time, provided that they win a two-thirds supermajority in the NPA vote. Anyone can seek to remove the sitting [General at any time, with the same rules. (In short, challengers are welcome all the time, everytime.)MoD approval of these votes has to be obtained for the outcome to be valid. MoD has power to make all interim/emergency fillings.

If you'd like, the JAG can be a group/person that is neither the General nor MoD and has the added responsibility of investigating whether MoD policy is being followed by the General and subordinates and can proscribe punishments including loss of rank (even for the General). But, this sounds complicated, and if our region's legal system is a bit of a mess, the military shouldn't even attempt it.

Sounds good, although I'm not sure whether to stick with regular elections (as everything else does) although I think your idea is an interesting one.. If you want to write up something to cover this, feel free. Your legalese is better than mine.

Also, I really don't like

C - Deployment to any other region outside The North Pacific in addition requires the approval of the Security Council.

...but then again, it's just my opinion, and I know many disagree with me.

I personally don't think it is necessary, but thats the system we've been going by so I thought it best to codify that, rather than try to change that as well.

How does the official title of General of the NPA factor in with the current rank system? My rank currently is full General, but I'm not "The General", as I was back in 2006 under Dalimbar.

How would the two systems coexist, or would the entire rank system be replaced?

Well the General of the NPA is/would be the most senior position, so would outrank a 'normal' General as such. That's probably the simplest way of looking at it. The rank structure/organisation is the responsibility of the General so if they wanted to remove the potential for any confusion they could eliminate the General rank (so you might be a Lt.General or a Maj.General or whatever) or they could not, it would be down to them.

 

[Gaspo]

So, if we give the new position of General of the NPA control over the rank structure, and command of our forces on the field....what exactly does the MoD do?

 

[Ator People]

I think this amendment is unnecessary. As the rank system is set up right now, any member of the High Command can authorize a mission. The MoD can (and has) delegated responsibilities to different high ranking members of the army by use of the internal organization of the NPA.

I don't see the need to create another position when that can be done internally.

 

[Gaspo]

I was just about to step back and say what ^ said.

I honestly fail to see any need for change in the NPA at the moment. The basic system Mesian put in place works. Some of the more elaborate elements, such as the combat units and such, end up not being used, but overall the system works damn well. There's not really any need for an overhaul.

 

[Monte Ozarka]

Yeah...

The current system may not be the best on paper, but it's puttering about fine. If we were to build something from the ground up, I'd probably be in favor of something different than what we have right now. But changing it now when it's not (obviously) broken may not be the best allocation of resources.

But then again, it's better to pre-empt a potential problem. Oh well. I'm rambling again.

 

[Gaspo]

To pre-empt, perhaps, but a total overhaul from the ground up is something that, in the past, has been done within the NPA, by the MoD. It's not something that should be debated and tossed around in the RA. The RA is good for quite a few things, but planning an efficient and well-thought-out organizational system for a military force is not something that should be done by committee, especially not one this large.