My fellow South Pacificans, wherever you may be — good morning, good afternoon, good evening. It’s official: I’m seeking your vote for Prime Minister.
For some of you, my candidacy may come as no surprise. I founded my main nation in the South Pacific almost ten years ago, and have been proud to call myself a South Pacifican ever since. I am not a member of any other region, and I have always seen the South Pacific as my one true home in the world of NationStates. Within our region’s executive, I’ve served as Minister of Defense, Minister of Engagement, Minister of Integration, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and caretaker Prime Minister for a few brief days, in addition to various positions outside of the executive.
But for others, it may be surprising to see me running to be your Prime Minister. It’s been over two years since my last campaign, and I’ve fended off probably somewhere north of a dozen nominations to run for Prime Minister since then. So why now? I wish I had a deeper answer, but really, there’s just part of me that feels it’s the right time.
It’s easy to stake out a campaign on a slew of ambitious projects or a mass of legislative aspirations, but there’s more to it than that. I don’t want to be the kind of Prime Minister that turns their campaign into a long list of to-dos, to be diligently checked off one by one throughout the term. I don’t want to be the kind of Prime Minister who appoints a Cabinet to satisfy their enumerated statutory responsibilities without providing broader direction. The role of the Prime Minister is greater than just managing projects, drafting legislation, or supervising ministers — it takes leadership. It’s right there in the Charter: the Prime Minister is the leader of the executive branch. And yet, leadership is a nebulous term, so I want to share what it means to me.
What kind of leader do I strive to be?
As Prime Minister, I aim to be…
- Collaborative. Nobody leads alone. When we work together as one executive, one government, and one region, we are stronger for it. That takes communication. Within the executive, I want to make the Cabinet Office — the Cabinet’s private subcategory — a forum for not just updates across different ministries, but also feedback from one minister to another and for teamwork between different ministers. Foreign Affairs and Culture can work together on events that strengthen ties with our diplomatic partners. Integration and Recruitment can work together on how to pitch our region to newly founded nations both inside and outside our region. And all ministers can work together on drafting updates from the Cabinet.
- Humble. Even the best-laid plans go awry. Every Prime Minister has faced their share of changing circumstances and unexpected challenges, and I am sure my term will be no exception. I want to face those difficulties with humility, and to me, that means three things: accountability, growth, and adaptability. While the focus on the Prime Minister as a single point of contact for the Cabinet has made it easier to ask questions of the executive, that degree of personal responsibility has also made it tempting to paper over the cracks. I take a different view. As Prime Minister, I would rather be honest when my Cabinet and myself haven’t achieved our goals, because that accountability is the first step towards learning from those difficulties and adapting to them.
- Organized. Our executive is vast. There are plenty of moving parts both within and between ministries, but they’re easier to track in a Cabinet that works together. Prime Ministers in the past have promised regular check-ins with their ministers, regular updates to the public, and regular scrutiny of their goals. These aren’t so different. Updates from the Cabinet offer a centralized framework for organization. In the past, these updates have often served to convince the public that the Cabinet isn’t inactive, but they are also a natural venue to preview and promote the Cabinet’s upcoming activities. Let me put it this way: “come participate in our festival this weekend!” is much more actionable and inviting than “we held a festival last weekend.”
Who would I lead with?
I haven’t finalized an exact ministry structure — in part, because I want to allow folks to make a case for themself to be a minister — but I do know some of the policy areas I want to advance during my term. In no particular order, the ministries I’m currently envisioning are…
Culture
To me, our regional culture is one of robust debate and tight-knit community. I value events, projects, and other initiatives that bring us closer together and help us get to know each other. While I like to joke that I argue with strangers on the internet for fun, those social bonds are the fabric that have held our democracy together for over two decades. Cultural events don’t have to be large in their scale or elaborate in their theming, but they should be deliberate. In practice, that means publicizing events across all three of our platforms, coordinating with Foreign Affairs on events with our partners abroad, and planning to promote our events in advance.
Integration
Our integration efforts are at their best when they take a holistic approach, spanning the entire journey from a newly founded nation to an established community member. That starts with figuring out what the core appeal of our region is and then figuring out how to bring out that appeal along that journey.
With newly founded nations, that journey starts with telegrams and dispatches. In addition to our traditional tools — our welcome telegram and our pinned dispatches — I welcome the addition of recruitment telegrams to our arsenal. But the journey doesn’t end there.
One of the problems with our current integration infrastructure is that the result is often a title to gain, not a thing to do. It doesn’t matter how many new citizens we gain if none of them care about participating in our democracy, or how many new legislators if they never share their thoughts in the Assembly, or how many new roleplayers if they never care to immerse themselves in our canons.
We abolished the staffer system because it was perpetually bloated, but we never replaced it with something more streamlined. I will work with my Cabinet to create a ‘job board’ listing out ways to get involved. Rather than conferring the title of ‘staffer’ as a prerequisite for access, why not directly advertise ways of getting involved? We don’t need an army of permanent staffers to run a cultural event or draft a welcome dispatch; if we need the manpower, we can put out a ‘job listing’ so that we’re offering an actionable avenue for South Pacificans of all experience levels to get involved.
Trading Cards
On paper, we have a fledgling cards program that’s gone through several sputtering starts but never quite gained enough traction to take off. Elsewhere, however, individual South Pacificans have taken to offering their cards as incentives for participation. If done right, a cards program offers a great platform that other parts of our government can build on, providing a source of rewards and incentives for the South Pacificans who go above and beyond for our region.
But first, it has to get off the ground. With sufficient interest, a Ministry of Trading Cards can provide the momentum to formalize farming and trading schemes; create the guides that South Pacificans need to contribute; and establish a structure for other parts of the government to sustainably offer cards as rewards.
Foreign Affairs
Broadly speaking, our foreign affairs are in a pretty good spot. We don’t require drastic changes to our diplomatic portfolio, but we should strengthen our ties with our allies and partners. To me, first and foremost, that means strengthening the bonds between our communities. Just as our regional culture defines who we are, other regions have their own cultures. Joint events and cultural exchanges are a great way to build the kind of genuine, cross-regional connections that smoke-filled backrooms can’t forge.
I also find our current foreign affairs structure overly compartmentalized. We have foreign affairs advisors who aren’t part of our Aegis delegation, Aegis delegates who aren’t part of our Partnership for Sovereignty delegation, and Partnership for Sovereignty delegates who aren’t part of bilateral communications with other regions. These aren’t worlds apart. If someone is trusted with access to internal communications and sensitive information, they shouldn’t need to navigate a labyrinth of different access levels.
World Assembly Legislation
Every Prime Minister campaign has that area where the candidate throws up their hands and admits they aren’t that experienced. For me, that’s the World Assembly. I picked up a bit about the Security Council from my time in military leadership, but I’m afraid I won’t be of much help if you’re looking to draft a new resolution.
That said, in the World Assembly, our greatest strength isn’t top-down leadership, it’s bottom-up participation. The Office of World Assembly Legislation has done a great job putting out voting threads, and there’s no reason they can’t be integrated into our broader integration infrastructure. Debating World Assembly proposals is one form of community participation, but unlike many others, it doesn’t get any pinned topics on the forum or much of a mention in our welcome dispatch. Even our World Assembly recommendations just have a link to our Discord server in 10-point font. We deserve more careful attention to how we advertise these existing opportunities that have been so diligently maintained.
Interested?
I envision an executive that doesn’t just work for you — I envision one that you can be proud to say is your executive. That starts even before the term does, when the new Prime Minister forms their Cabinet. Instead of promising to appoint ‘new’ members to bring on fresh ideas or ‘old’ members to compensate for areas where I have less experience, I want to meet you where you’re at.
Minister positions will be the first listing on the job board if I’m elected. If my platform sounds appealing to you, please reach out! I would love to hear from anybody interested in joining my Cabinet. Don’t worry if you feel too inexperienced or too ancient, if I know you too well or don’t know you at all — first and foremost, I am just looking for a passion for civil service in the executive. You can reach me by private message here on the forums, by direct message on Discord, or by telegram on NationStates. Remember: this isn’t the time to be humble. Don’t be shy about your qualifications!
I’ll take a look at the messages I receive after the election. I want to give everybody a chance to reach out, including those for whom it would be awkward to do so during an election, and I don’t want to make any promises before the election ends lest they look like rewards for my electoral victory. However, I’m mentioning this now because it represents the kind of administration I want to lead: an administration where opportunities for involvement are not just open, but advertised; where you can feel not just welcome, but invited. I hope that you’ll welcome me to be your next Prime Minister.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
I’m a South Pacifican through and through. I do not hold and have never held any positions in any foreign region. I have various puppet nations from my days of more active SPSF service scattered across various regions, most of which I can’t name and none of which I feel any particular loyalty to. I’d estimate around half are regions that I own. The last time (and only time, as far as I can recall) I joined another region was over six years ago, in October 2018. I joined the United League of Nations to get more involved with authoring General Assembly resolutions. As it turned out, I just parked my nation there doing nothing until it ceased to exist.
Here in the South Pacific, I’m a member of the Citizenship Committee, the Council on Regional Security, the High Court (as an Associate Justice), the South Pacific Special Forces (as an Ensign), and the Assembly (as a legislator).
Out of character, I’m also a junior moderator and a map editor for our modern-tech roleplay canon, Pacifica.