Opening Address - January 2024
If you've seen my previous attempts at long addresses you know that they don't go so well, so this is going to be short and sweet. I'd like to thank @Kaschovia for the huge amount of trust he has placed in me to hold this role that I never have before. I am very excited to see what I can do in this new position.
Last term – and indeed, even in the terms prior to that – there has been discontent over this Ministry's public communication. Foreign Affairs has always had a reputation for being the most shadowy and secretive of Ministries. We are going to work to change that perception this term.
Another long-standing issue in the Ministry is how to effectively engage the staff of the Ministry when so much work happens behind closed doors. Staff in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will now be divided into two teams, based on their responses to the roll call. Those who stated that they preferred to be ambassadors are still going to be ambassadors. That is staying the same. What is changing is for the people who selected participation in FA discussions. They will be a part of a new team of "Analysts" solely dedicated to those discussions; essentially a more formal version of the discussion channel that already exists, but one that makes it clear that ambassadorship is not the only way to serve in the Ministry. If you don't know much about foreign affairs but you want to learn, this is also for you.
After reading about the analysts you may be thinking "is that jerk Comfed going to bench the ambassadors the whole term?" Don't worry, I have tasks for the ambassadors as well, revolving primarily around diplomatic research. The foreign affairs map, a visual representation of our relationships with other regions, is a project I am excited to work on, and it will depend on ambassadors furnishing us with information about the regions they are assigned to. We will also be encouraging diplomatic research from our ambassadors in more engaging ways – there are many possibilities here but specific research tasks and directed discussions are two possibilities included in Delegate Kaschovia's re-election platform.
Speaking of engaging our staff, our training this term is also going to look a little bit different than last. Most of our current training manuals are not really useful for their intended purpose; no one has become a skilled diplomat from training materials. What we can do is build the foreign affairs knowledge of our Ministry staff. This term, I intend to offer our Ministry staff case studies for them to discuss.
Finally, I am looking to bring back the senior diplomats in some form. For those who don't know, the senior diplomats are a team of advisors who give the delegate and minister of foreign affairs a broader array of perspectives to consult when handling FA matters. I will be reaching out to some of you in the coming days, but if you feel that you are sufficiently knowledgeable of foreign affairs matters to serve, please reach out. Chances are you are more knowledgeable than you may think.
All that being said, here is my team of deputy ministers this term:
@Halsoni - as I previously mentioned, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has always struggled with public communication. I will be working with Halsoni on the difficult task of improving that this term; he is ideally suited to this role given that he is also Minister of Communications.
@Nutmeg The Squirrel - we're not turning the world upside down with the projects we are pushing within the ministry, but they are projects nonetheless, and we need someone for the unglamorous but extremely important work of supervising the ministry staff. I have always known Nutmeg to be someone with a strong work ethic and I am confident he will serve excellently in his changed role.
@Attempted Socialism - AS has been serving the Ministry as a deputy for a long time, but his portfolio is going to be a little bit different this term. He will be working with me and the government on improving our systems for taking in and processing foreign affairs information. Pallaith, in his closing address, already noted the difficulties and inadequacies of the ambassador reports system for this purpose. In foreign affairs, knowledge is power, and I am committed to improving and refining our abilities in this regard.
Well, that turned out to be longer than I was expecting. So much for short and sweet. >:-( Anyways, let's get to work on making this a great term!
Comfed
