Combining the FA and Trade office

[ali]

It seems strange to me that the FA office controls all dealings with foreign nations bar trade??? Isnt trade another form of a international agreement?? Thus I believe trade should be placed under Foreign AFFairs Office and the Office be renamed Foreign Affairs and Trade Office or simply Foreign Affairs as trade is sim;ly another form of internationl agreement which is under the jurisdiction of the FA anyways

 

[blackheart]

tried more than once, failed

 

[GenMarshall]

No, The offices should remain separate entaties. We have tried in the past and it failed. Fortunately I was against the combination of the FA and Trade offices in the past.

 

[Octavian X]

Well, then, don't just dismiss the idea right out of the bat - that's never a good idea. I think I'll take a page out of Socrates' book...

Why had this not worked before?

What was wrong with the combination, and what prompted reversion to the old system?

Does a newly concievable way exist in which such a proposal may be impleamented?

 

[Donovan Zoi]

Well, then, don't just dismiss the idea right out of the bat - that's never a good idea. I think I'll take a page out of Socrates' book...

Why had this not worked before?

What was wrong with the combination, and what prompted reversion to the old system?

Does a newly concievable way exist in which such a proposal may be impleamented?

Where's Triumph when you need him?

This is a great idea......you know the rest.

 

[Nobody]

no to much work for one minister, trade and FA were the two biggest elections, if it anit broke, dont fix it

 

[ali]

than create a sub-department for it..it doesnt make sense for a seeprate office

 

[Ashburnham]

I think it does. They deal with two different areas of government. Sure, they both involve relations with other countries, but they are fundamentally different. Foreign Affairs deals with political agreements (are we at war? are we friends? can I go through your land?), while Trade deals with economic agreements (can I buy that luxury? will you give me money for this tech?). Combining the two, besides the fact that it would be a daunting task for any Minister to handle, would create a Ministry that has too many issues to deal with, and too many different obligations to attend to.

Besides, as others have said before, it's been tried and proven ineffective.

 

[Eklektikos]

no to much work for one minister

Agreed. Trade alone can be a serious backbreaker when done thoroughly. I imagine the same can also be said for FA, although I have no personal experience of that office.

 

[Cyc]

I too think it's best to keep them separate. Besides it being too much work for one person, your idea would eliminate an opportunity for a potential office-holder.

But if we do go with your idea, shouldn't we combine the Ministry of War (MSAV) with it also? Besides shooting college students and union workers, I believe we use our military exclusively with Foreign nations. It is definitely a form of Foreign Affairs and this combination would remove any entanglements caused by keeping the two separate. On second thought ... never mind.

 

[blackheart]

than create a sub-department for it..it doesnt make sense for a seeprate office

If that's the case MSAV, Culture, and the governorships should all be combined under Domestic, since they're all (mostly) domestic related.

 

[blackheart]

Well, then, don't just dismiss the idea right out of the bat - that's never a good idea. I think I'll take a page out of Socrates' book...

Why had this not worked before?

What was wrong with the combination, and what prompted reversion to the old system?

Does a newly concievable way exist in which such a proposal may be impleamented?

Erm, wasn't Socrates killed for his beliefs?

 

[ali]

however in the Real World foriegn Affairs handles Trade as well FA is directly effected by trade whom to be to friendly to dictates the level of economic assisatancer to them and trade for examply why should trade give a nation say 800 gold for a service or luxery in whgich in the next turn the FA office declares them a enemy or unfrilendlly state towards us I just say we should form a sub-department.....and this limiting the office available dont we have a numbers shortage anyway of citzens particparting at all??

 

[Eklektikos]

I believe the point of this game is, to a large extent, cooperation. If FA and Trade have conflicting instructions then the leaders of those departments are at fault, as are the citizenry for failing to take them to task for it. The fact that their portfolios are interrelated is not a strong argument for combining them, since every department is in some way inextricably connected to another: FA needs Military cooperation to back up its policies, Military needs both gubernatorial and Domestic cooperation in order to maintain a large and modern enough force, etc... This is true in "real world" nations as well - the UK has a separate Foreign Office and Dept. of Trade & Industry, for example.

 

[Provolution]

FA should develop policies for each country. As it has been previous terms, they only had a Defcon list, which is a fatal way to run foreign affairs. a foreign policy should entail military relations, trade, cultural pressure and so on, and then ask the relevant ministries to handle the long term perspective in their sector.

 

[Ashburnham]

I believe the point of this game is, to a large extent, cooperation. If FA and Trade have conflicting instructions then the leaders of those departments are at fault, as is the citizenry for failing to take them to task for it. The fact that their portfolios are interrelated is not a strong argument for combining them, since every department is in some way inextricably connected to another: FA needs Military cooperation to back up its policies, Military needs both gubernatorial and Domestic cooperation in order to maintain a large and modern enough force, etc... This is true in "real world" nations as well - the UK has a separate Foreign Office and Dept. of Trade & Industry, for example.

I'll second that. (yea, I really had nothing new to add to this discussion )

 

[mhcarver]

I'll second that. (yea, I really had nothing new to add to this discussion )

Third, same reason as Ashburnham

 

[blackheart]

however in the Real World foriegn Affairs handles Trade as well FA is directly effected by trade whom to be to friendly to dictates the level of economic assisatancer to them and trade for examply why should trade give a nation say 800 gold for a service or luxery in whgich in the next turn the FA office declares them a enemy or unfrilendlly state towards us I just say we should form a sub-department.....and this limiting the office available dont we have a numbers shortage anyway of citzens particparting at all??

In the real world one department/ministry doesn't handle everything. In the real world duties are seperated. In the real world heads of ministries/departments cooperate with each other.

This isn't the real world

 

[Black_Hole]

keep em seperate

 

[donsig]

Yes, let's keep them apart and spend our energies figuring out how to best handle the areas that overlap.