NationStates Jolt Archive

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IDC to 'clean out' infamous Blacklist

The Iuthian Government announced earlier today in the latest series of press conferences that the world renowned Iuthian ‘Black List’, a long list of nations condemned and embargoed by the Iuthian Government for various reasons, is to undergo massive reforms, in some cases completely removing some nations from the infamous list.

These changes are part of the newest decisions made by acting Lord General Turgidson, acting in conjunction with the head of the Iuthian Diplomatic Corps, which outline the overall changes in the way the Iuthian Diplomatic Corps conducts itself.

Foreign Minister Mick Lakely had this to say about the latest IDC reforms:

"Prior to the Lord General leaving Iuthia for his honeymoon, we were informed in detail on his views on the Iuthian Diplomatic Corps, expressing in his wisdom that without change the IDC will grow stagnant and find itself increasingly unable to properly react to the changing world.

In accordance with his wishes, several meetings were conducted between the most senior members of the Iuthian Diplomatic Corps where we came to the conclusion that the Blacklist, one of our most proud creations now copied by other governments throughout the world, is in need of a certain degree of change and review in order to take into account the changes in Iuthian policy and changes in the nations themselves.

One such nation, Hogsweat, has for long enough been blacklisted for various charges of mass slaughter against their own people and other acts deemed wholly inappropriate by the Iuthian Government… recently this nation has seen many reforms and it is our feeling that such nations, who display the will to change, deserve rewards in order to fully encourage them and other nations to improve their international relations.

Iuthia’s position now on such nations is to remove them from the list completely and instead impose economic measures on any trade they wish to conduct with the Iuthian government which will, in time, move towards that of the standard Iuthian tariffs on trade. With this we hope to encourage long term changes in the government who reform.

With this new attitude of forgive and forget, we hope that Iuthia can increase it’s diplomatic presence around the world while retaining it’s strong values."

Already in response the these latest changes Iuthia has removed Hogsweat, and other similar nations who have showed promise, from the Iuthian blacklist, opening it’s trade to these nations and effectively congratulating them on their reforms. As of yet few nations have had chance to react to these changes as the situation develops.

Central Command, Iuthia Prima

“Right lads, you all know this meeting has been a long time coming as Lord General deGritz has been planning this for some time. Though I find it strange that the whole issue of reform has to be addressed during my watch as acting Lord General of Iuthia, it’s clear that James wanted me here to for some reason or other…” the speaker, with the wise voice of command, had already worked out the reason James deGritz wanted him to be here, the fact that he was out of the country and had planned for this meeting when he knew he would be away with his newly wed wife was an interesting ploy… clearly he had misjudged the depth of James’s cunning. “in any case I would like to allow everyone here today the chance to empress their views on the subject before we get started. Anyone want to start?

“As I understand it, General, it was the Lord General’s opinion that the Iuthian Diplomatic Corps has pretty much succeeded in all of it’s goals thus far, but has become a lax in it’s methods recently… simply put we haven’t reached out to enough nations.” Unlike the General, this man was a bit younger (albeit still old enough to be a father), though he was well educated in this field and spoke with much more experience then the General had done.

“Yes, Mick, I get the impression that the Lord General has big plans for the IDC… most of the Iuthian Military already recognise this simply because the IDC has seen a sharp increase in funding, funding originally reserved for certain Black Viper projects, so far they are content however that this is funding well spent. As you said yourself, the IDC has been mostly successful.”

Mick’s face remained as cool as ever, despite the empathise on ‘mostly’ in the Generals words. Many of the people attending this meeting were the senior members of the Iuthian Diplomatic Corps who weren’t on assignment; most of them were diplomats in their own right, though just as many were administrators in their own right. Mick Lakely himself was the Foreign Minster and close personal friend to James deGritz… opposite him sat General Tugidson, normally the Minister of Defence though currently he was acting Lord General as James deGritz was away enjoying the pleasures of Unity Island. Iuthia’s power structure, as a result, was a little tense… old rivalries die hard even in times of peace and stability, further adding to the fun was the careful plans James had left with them to carefully assure he wouldn’t have any problems while gone. The General continued…

“So, would you say that the Iuthian Diplomatic Corps needs reform?” he asked, uncharacteristically. In most encounters Mick found the General to be a more simple man, perhaps he had misjudged him and now he was considering it while answering the Generals question.

“Well of course the IDC needs reform, without it we would grow stagnant, a terrible fate in a constantly changing world. Exactly what we are to reform itself is a much harder question to answer, which is why we are here today.” to this the General nodded, Mick continuing his point. “Personally I’m of the opinion that the IDC’s structure is, on the whole, highly functional… everyone in the IDC knows where they stand and what their duty is. I feel that if there is anything which needs reform the most is our policy, perhaps even the Blacklist itself…”

“Hm…I can see how the Blacklist isn’t entirely up to date these days, many things have changed, one of them being Iuthia’s very foreign policies themselves, though the older hawks of our military won’t like it, they love to use them as examples for their scenarios” The General noted… the rest of the men and women present simply allowed these two power-players to talk as it would be very dangerous to step into this exchange at this point. Iuthia’s Blacklist was considered almost a foundation of Iuthia’s dealings with various nations, noting which nations Iuthia simply didn’t work with or care much for and giving the nation a general idea of who the enemy was… soldiers liked to know where they stood with such things and they enjoyed the jokes which would emerge, some of the stuff said about Hogsweat alone simply couldn’t be said outside of a barracks.

“Nothing too drastic to start with, we still have our values and principals… though we need to recognise reformed nations now, accept their changes and congratulate them properly by slowly rebuilding our relations.” The General has heard this argument from Mick before and simply nodded, it was a easy enough statement to agree with.

“Hm… slowly rebuilding our relations? I like the sound of that, are you saying we don’t just return to a neutral view of them, but instead make them work for it?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, General, we’re a prideful people as I’m sure you will agree… while we would no longer embargo their trade, we would place heavy tariffs to be reduced over a period of time, measured in years, pending good behaviour… it would market it as a reward for good behaviour.”

“I could go for that. On the subject I think it’s about time the IDC took a more active role recently, as you stated yourself it’s looking a little lax in light of things… only the most public incidents have really been reacted to.”

“Well, it goes without saying really, though we’ll have to work on increasing our intelligence networks… it’s clear that we simply haven’t got the information we really need in many of these situations. I’m sure the Iuthian Military can accommodate this…”

“I’ll have to talk to the Lord General about it when he gets back, we would need more funding to have a more significant change… there is only so much one can do with streamlining, assuming we can streamline any further.” The General then sighed, looking around the room. “and on that note, it’s time to look further into the very details of this reform… I’m sure you guys can do that much without me being here, I’ll expect a report on my desk tomorrow so I can go through the proposals myself, I’m sure I won’t be disappointed… good hunting guys!”

And with that, General Turgidson got up and left the room, leaving the suits to work out the specifics of the reform.