Overview
The Office of Foreign Relations is an adjunct office that reports directly to Council.
This office is responsible for managing the nation's relations with other nations. It works with treaties, diplomatic negotiations and arrangements, matters of protocol, ambassadors, and every other thing related to communication with other nations.
It maintains contact lists with every nation it can and it is aware of politics both planetary and alien.
The Office of Foreign Relations has a team of ambassadors that can visit embassies in nations for which there is an embassy treaty.
The Office works with its foreign ambassador counterparts as well as Council to establish an embassy in the nation's territory for the foreign ambassador.
Ambassadors (both local and foreign) have free reign to talk to Council whenever they want.
Treaties and any kind of agreement are treated with very special care and scrutiny.
The nation should be very hesitant to sign any agreement or treaty and should only do so if it is absolutely necessary.
Agreements or treaties are an act of programming reality and hold more power than a constitution. They are effectively a Directive of Light (constitutional amendment) with a foreign power, which makes them very dangerous, especially given the history of agreement abuse that goes on on this planet.
No treaty or agreement can be signed without first being submitted to the Office of Priorities.
The Office of Priorities takes note of this particular proposal and sends it through the system.
When it returns to the Office of Priorities, if it be deemed right by the Office of Rightness and reasonable by the Office of Reason and conscionable by the Office of Conscience, then it must invoke a debate
(whether to sign or not sign), presentations (for each side), and a nation-wide referendum for signing after the debate.
The order is presentation first, then debate, then referendum.
If the signing side wins the debate, and the population agrees with the referendum, then the treaty or agreement proposal returns to Council with a yes; otherwise it returns with a no.
Council then has the final word on whether to commit the nation to the treaty or agreement and ratifies it.
Once the proposal is ratified, a signed treaty or agreement can be sent to the foreign nation via the Office of Foreign Relations.
Every signed treaty or agreement requires a unified Council vote and the signatures of every Council member. If there is an active Paragon, his or her signature is also required.
If there is no Paragon, the signature is not required and Council can proceed on its own.
If, however, a treaty or agreement would require a modification to either the constitution or the nation's identity, then a Paragon's approval is required as such an agreement will require a Directive of Light to implement it.
Agreements like this would be any kind of agreement that involves joining a union or alliance, becoming a suzerain or vassal state, or anything that affects the nation's sovereignty and core operation.
The Office of Foreign Relations maintains an index of all active treaties and agreements.
It co-ordinates with the Office of Rightness to ensure proposals align with the nation's agreements.
When it comes to representing the nation in international events, the Council can send a special envoy for these occasions.
That envoy can be a member of Council, a dedicated position for this purpose such as a viceroy, or an ambassador.
