Reaffirming Ireland's place as a Champion of Small Nations?

Day 2,375, 15:18 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by Seanan


My previous article is solely to challenge Boru's sense of self importance, not those with a valid concern. It was for my piece of mind to highlight his motivation not being too dissimilar to Dail members who vote down proposals they agree with (i.e. a good proposal) because of some technicality on how it was presented. Or more honestly, hes been counted as a member of the ordinary public... oooooooooo must burn him up

If you wish to read the details of the Irish-South Korea Agreement, my Co-Minister of Defence An Sluagh has released an article.

Instead, I want to advocate a quick and calm consensus building. Polarizing opinion at this stage would simply be a step in fragmenting the community in circumstances which aren't particularly disagreeable to anyone and aren't presumed to be long lasting.

Plenty of valid concerns have stemmed from the lack of detail regarding the Agreement in the media, and this means ordinary citizens will have not up til recently been able to make an informed judgement; Rental agreements take the cooperation of the community hence there must be strong reasons to believe or evidence to show the cooperation is there. Specifically the lack of detail regarding rental payment raises the issue whether the plan will be financially worthwhile for the resources to enact and maintain. Further lack of clarity of which regions to be rented under the Agreement raises the issue if Ireland's economy and strategic maneuverability will be threatened. Lastly, lack of information on South Korea available to the Irish community raises the issue if the country is a politically stable / a reliable partner / security risk.

I'm not actually going to answer them as such. The ins and outs of the Agreement is out there for public consumption.

The decision to act was more an action of solidarity with a smaller nation, which has been brutally oppressed for two years, rather than any mutually beneficial (disclaimer: some would argue otherwise) pact we shared with the United States. The circumstances are different, and reasons behind this are more about Ireland taking a direct role in Aurora and Sirius campaigns to free conquered allies.

The priority is securing South Korea a Congress, with the rental agreement being a secondary objective. Providing South Korea is able to take an Irish region before losing their original regions to Taiwan, South Korea will gain a Congress. Whether or not, Ireland then chooses to allow South Korea a prolonged stay is still debatable. Mechanically, due to Determination build up, such a deal is unlikely to last more than 3 months given South Korea's population - certainly a wider cooperation within the Dail and Military Units would be necessary to reset the Determination build up.

Again mechanically, there is a life expectancy on any rental agreement. There is no guarantee of a lasting Agreement, but we can at the very least provide South Korea a region to run candidates for the first time in two years.

However, "mechanically" and "metagame" were two words I'd advised my Co-Minister to avoid when expressing support for the initiative. If I still have the attention of those who instinctively disagree with renting of Irish regions, I dare them to challenge their prescriptive in this instance - we are the masters of this situation.

Its came up once in the Dail, the different "game styles" players take on. Most common clashes are that of the Metagame vs Roleplaying, which plays out like this:
Metagamer "This is a logical plan/action"
Roleplayer "This plan/action is against my politico-ideological identify"
Metagamer "Here is an evaluation of achievability of this plan/action"
Roleplayer "This plan/action does not properly consider my interests"
Everyone gets upset.

That debate never goes anywhere (and its not particularly fun for anyone), so its good to remove ourselves from the equation for a second to consider the proposal at its basic values.

A small nation in Asia, which is slowly becoming the focus point of the alliance wars, has asked for help gaining a Congress after two years of being denied by their aggressive neighbours. In the field, the small nation is unlikely to amount an attack to liberate more than one region which is insufficient to guarantee a Congress should their aggressive neighbour choose to intervene. This nation has limited resources, hence their capability to perform major operations will also be limited.

Under these circumstances, Ireland should consider what we want to do and what we can do. I'd say my want is to give South Korea a Congress, because helping the underdog is supposedly a core belief this country has. However, what can we do? Realistically, Irish damage alone will not counter Taiwan's attacks on South Korea. Apart from petitioning alliances and attempting diplomatic routes with Taiwan, opening our regions (short or long term) is an option which would be convincingly a solely Irish action.

In terms of the rental amounts offered and the damages we incur, the Agreement is neither particularly damaging nor rewarding in Metagame terms apart from a few 10k IEP per month. The intrinsic reward is far greater if we allow ourselves to be the good guys rather than treat this like a violation and act the victims; small nation denied Congress? Good Guy Ireland got it covered, bro.

Renting or crediting Irish regions is not always a sinister "selling" scheme. We could allow South Korea to take procession of Irish regions just long enough to gain a Congress for free! Eh how about that? Just temporary and we've helped out a small nation get something of great worth to them. Truly we are a nation of worthy of our reputation (?).

This isn't the US looking for bonuses, this is Ireland being extraordinary. Certainly, we are not going to rent/credit our regions to every small nation which has come under hard times... but two years without a Congress fits my definition of extraordinary circumstances.

"A little less offense and a little more courage" should have been the motto when we began our Slovenian Campaign, and it should be applied here. The limited life span of the Agreement means this debate will end. But more importantly, while the Government has acted in the small time available, we can discuss and hold a referendum post getting South Korea here. We will secure their Congress (Dio willing), that is what is most important - what we do after (i.e. the duration of their stay) does not require our immediate attention and can be worked out in the following days.

All due consideration for the community's opinion has to feature, even in this circumstance where the proposal is actually doing something which agrees with many Irish players principles, but performing such a consultation before or after getting South Korea in Ireland is inconsequential to us - expect its very significant to South Korea. Circumstances meant the Irish Government had a limited window to consider, and after a quick survey of the Dail, decided the overall opinion is positive and we can formalize through the proper channels at a later date.

I took issue with Brian Boru's article because it's not saying this is a bad idea, but he wasn't asked and it sets some hombojumbo precedent. To be honest, I'd be more concern with a precedent of slow action to help our allies, and hesitation in actually living up to the notion we are a Champion of small nations.

A little quote for him;
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws" ~ Plato

From the general response, a referendum would have been positive because Ireland helps small nations. In likelihood, someone will run some opinion poll to confirm and we can have a debate about whether Irish government should have said "Yes, come this month" or "No, come next month". Taoiseach Mirek and members of the Dail clearly just had faith the wider Irish community would support a measure to aid a small nation in lieu of an official vote.

In the end, we're either going to help South Korea get a Congress or we're going to crush their two year Congress dreams. Not our problem? My countrymen, we are better than that.