As a strictly legal requirement, no, but given the change in administration, I would prefer the Assembly vote on all Ministers within the Cabinet regardless of prior status.
Will there be any further ministry appointments? If so, when?
There will be an open call for applications for Minister of Culture and Minister of Integration which I intend to publish tomorrow.
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In that case I would like to express my wish to run for MoC. I will upload something when the thread becomes public.
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Thank you for this; this is an excellent question. I have a lot of mixed feelings right now. The Military Code is a document that makes an immense amount of sense when the military is running smoothly and there are no activity issues. It does not adequately predict and provide for an institutional crash like we are experiencing today. Nevertheless, my agenda was written with its confines in mind, and thus in that way it is âsufficientâ if not optimal.
Legislatively, (and I should preface that I am not a particularly gifted legislator) the Military Code is very thin, and its thinness allows both for flexibility and for the mismanagement that we see today. All of our problems can be solved with functional executive leadership, but the Charter and Military Code only really have an unhelpful nuclear option to ensure that there is functional executive leadership. It places a lot of trust in the Admiralty.
Let me illustrate a bit of what I mean:
- The Charter does not require that there be a Minister of Defense, and it would be preposterous to assume the Prime Minister is familiar with military gameplay. Thus, we cannot guarantee any active oversight of from the Cabinet.
- The Military Code specifies a maximum number of Admirals (3) but thereâs no requirement that any more than one seat be filled. Plodding along with one Admiral with no plan in sight to remove that single point of failure is completely within the bounds of the Military Code.
- The Military Code does not codify any formalized Officer Corp that certain responsibilities could be devolved to. One sort of exists informally in the form of the Wardroom, but no officers had been promoted into it in a long time. The Code has no way of ensuring that the Admiralty actually keep any other Officer staff that may be remotely qualified to take over for them.
This is to say that if the Prime Minister ignores their duty to the military and no Minister of Defense is appointed to do it for them and the Admiralty fails to train officers and that Admiralty then decides to ignore their duties as well⌠the conclusion of the Military Code is that the SPSF ceases all operations. This seems like an extremely unlikely eventuality, but it is the one we have found ourselves in.
The tools the Military Code have for activity arenât as useful as one may think. There are two relevant provisions: a requirement that all members update once per calendar month (a repeal of this provision is working its way through the assembly as we speak) and a rule that if there is no Admiral, the SPSF ceases to operate (the aforementioned nuclear option). Thereâs no recognition of activity outside of update attendance, and although updating is important, itâs arguably less critical for officers as some other tasks are. There likewise isnât an activity distinction between officers and ensigns, where I think one would make sense. The repeal was pushed through largely on the logic that having reservists (another thing not provided for in the Military Code) is helpful for large operations, but I do believe officers, or at least Admirals, should be held to a higher standard.
It should be said, though, that thereâs very little the Assembly can do repairatively in our current situation. We canât appoint more active people because the people in charge did not properly train others to take over. I will seek to remedy this over my term. Unless we are entertaining a repeal of the one org policy (which does not appear to be the case), weâre not going to be attracting talent from anywhere else.
To very directly answer your question, then, I donât think there is a reform of the Military Code that will expedite a revival of the SPSF - largely because we need now to do the hard work of recruitment and training to cultivate people qualified to lead in the first place. Itâs revival will be built on activity and active work of the executive, and I do not feel hampered by the Military Code in the execution of my vision as MoD. However, I do think that once the engines are moving again, there is legislative work to be done in the vein of preventing this situation from happening again, and I, as MoD would love to lend my experience to the Assembly in that process.
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https://www.nationstates.net/nation=the_spsf_cat
Yes and he is a very good boy.
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Iâll make two posts here, first in my individual capacity as a legislator, then in my official capacity as Chair.
Could you explain what this is for those legislators who may not be familiar? And could you update the Assembly as to TSPâs current representation, if any, at the Square Table.
Do you believe that the Charter (or another statute) should require the appointment of a Minister of Defense?
As Chair, I agree with your interpretation of the Charter and laws. Unless formally dismissed by the Prime Minister (or removed via another method expressly provided by law such as recall), Cabinet ministers do not leave office with the change of administration. As such, if the incoming Prime Minister chooses to retain one of their predecessorâs ministers in the same post, no Assembly confirmation vote is legally required.
Nevertheless, there is no provision in our law of which I am aware that prevents the Assembly from passing a resolution re-confirming its trust and confidence in the minister to continue executing their office. Thus, Hennâs motion to call a vote on Nwahsâ appointment as MoFA is in order. The Chair would welcome a second to that motion, which would allow me to put both Cabinet appointments to vote simultaneously.
What resolution would we be voting on?
The Chair interprets the intent of ProfessorHennâs motion to be that the Assembly vote on whether it approves the Prime Ministerâs decision to re-appoint LordNwahs as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The Chair acknowledges that no specific legislative text for such a resolution has been presented; however, I interpret our laws as not requiring legislative text for Assembly resolutions, only for bills, amendments, and repeals. While the Legislative Procedure Act empowers the Assembly to pass bills, amendments, retention votes, resolutions, treaties, and appointments, the Law Standards Act requires only âbills, amendments, and repeals . . . be written in a formal and consistent manner.â Law Standards Act 1(1). Hence, while resolutions may be presented in formal legislative text, there is no legal requirement that they be.
Of course! The Square Table is the body in Libcord that among other things decides on promotions to update command. They also handle intelligence and some of the more sensitive sides of defenderdom. Itâs a body comprised of the most senior defenders across defenderdom.
As of now, Roavin, HS and Pronoun sit on the Square Table. I cannot say how active of a voice in practice they are. Itâs notable, I think, that none of them are active SPSF members.
My point with this to be very clear was not to insult the table, but just that with the inactive Admiralty, the only way potential officers would gain experience commanding was to catch the eye of the Square Table and be promoted.
I believe that requiring the appointment of a MoD would be one reasonable way to prevent a situation like the one we are in today. There may very well be other solutions less simple on paper, that would accomplish the same.
I want to be careful not to blur too much my role as a potential MoD and my role as a Legislator.
I would second that motion.
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Since the members representing us in The Square Table are inactive. Are you able to/do you plan to replace out the members representing us at The Square Table with more active members?
Do you also plan to appoint more admirals to the Admiralty if youâre able to with approval from the Prime Minister?
Do you think that there should be any rank or general organization changes across the SPSF?
These are my questions to you Heliseum.
We are now at vote!
Please be advised that Iâve submitted a nomination for Minister of Culture by editing the OP.
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I approve
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Please be advised that Iâve added a nomination for Minister of Integration by editing the OP.
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Idk who this âZhuangâ guy is but I would support them
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I might support this âZhuangâ guy if they post an agenda 
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