Writinglegend Shakes up Ministry of Foreign Affairs
By United Vietussia, with contribution from Deepest House
(Europeia – May 8, 2017) - In an unexpected but perhaps necessary turn of events, Minister of Foreign Affairs Writinglegend reestablished the Europeian Foreign Service (EFS) in a recent announcement. The introduction of the EFS to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs represents a radical departure from the previous ministry model.
"Upon taking the helm of this ministry," Writinglegend said in his address announcing the changes, “I stated, 'We need real, targeted growth and opportunity within the ministry for those that produce results.' It has become clear to me that, under the current system, such a pursuit is nearly impossible."
Writinglegend went on to point out multiple flaws in the Europeian ambassadorial system, including but not limited to a basic forum quiz that requires copy-pasting skills and a lack of opportunity for professional development and career growth for the region's ambassadors. In addition, he noted that communication outreach will become a core component of the foreign service officers’ portfolios.
“The Europeian Foreign Service will be specialized at spreading the message of Europeia abroad through our embassies,” he said. “Diplomats will play a critical role in the communication outreach of our region … Our multimedia is a unique communication outlet to project the capabilities of our region. It is beyond time to integrate them into our foreign outreach.”
Writinglegend also established Ambassadorial ranks to show progress and reward the harder working ambassadors in the region. The foreign minister has already assigned each ambassador his or her rank, which correspond with varying levels of responsibility. “Upward mobility within the ministry will be resurrected with the resurgence of ambassadorial ranks,” he explained. “These rankings give us a unique medium to show both progress and reward hard work in ambassadorial posts. For far too long we have lacked such a simple designator to show progress.”
The foreign minister also scrapped the testing system as part of the reform of the ministry and reintroduction of the foreign service. "Training should build around the system; our system should not be built around the training," he said.
The announcement was met by both criticism and support. “We ought to just get rid of ambassadors all together instead of finding make work for them to do posting little messages that will rarely even get read let alone provide any benefit,” said Notolecta, a local Europeian who is often outspoken in expressing criticisms. “Everything here is old news, things we've had before and provided no real benefit.”
Common-Sense Politics, Europeia’s current grand admiral, joined Notolecta in expressing doubt about the reform. “There is nothing different or new about this plan. We're simply going back to how we ran the [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] because somehow adding a ranking system has solved our problems,” he said. “I'm extremely disappointed that more meaningful action isn't being taken and that you're presenting this as meaningful action.”
Deepest House, the region’s minister of communications, drew a parallel between the ranking system in the EFS and the successful system used by the Europeian Republican Navy, noting that a ranking system serves “as a way to encourage career growth, confer greater responsibility, and demonstrate experience and expertise.” He also added that the change was significant reform to how the ministry will attract and nurture future diplomatic talent, as opposed to simply having two designations; trainee or ambassador.
Brunhilde, a former Europeian minister of foreign affairs, also added her support. “Writinglegend is an intelligent guy with a proven track record of success in the region,” she said. “He values, as I do, training that puts a trainee’s ability to think critically above training that asks a trainee to recite answers from a set of notes. If he believes that this new system will allow the region to pursue this kind of training, I fully support him and will wait to see how it goes before passing judgment.”
In the coming terms, we will see the effectiveness of the new system introduced by Writinglegend. He has tied his success or failure this term to the success of this reform. Time will tell if this puts the ministry in a better place going forward.
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