"Chain of Command" question

Captain Picard's Hair · Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:01 am

The line of questions in the Insurrection thread has got me wondering, why was Riker, a Starfleet officer, doing the job of an ambassador in "Chain of Command?|

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:06 am

Back in sailing ship days, foreign countries were months or even years away from one another. In such cases it wasn't practical to send for an ambassador or diplomat every time a problem came up. So it wasn't at all unusual for ship captains to negotiate treaties, agree terms, all that stuff. simple necessity.

Something of the sort would undoubtedly hold true in Trek. In fact given that Starfleet ships are made mainly for exploration, it would only be sensible and expected that every Captain is basically a general Ambassador of the Federation.

Captain Picard's Hair · Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:12 am

Well, we could at least have seen Riker consulting with Earth via subspace radio, which in other cases has proven to be fast enough for this to be practical.

Captain Picard's Hair · Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:20 am

... and that would be Captain Jellico doing the negotiation. Guh!

Post by **Mikey** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:36 am

I would guess that it is fairly common Starfleet/UFP practice to have officers act in a diplomatic role, considering the 832-bazillion times we've seen Picard do it and claim that it was part of his job. Plus (future) Admiral Jameson, et. al.

Captain Picard's Hair · Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:52 am

Accepted. But with a war potentially at stake, there should have been consultation with Earth.

Post by **Mikey** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:03 am

Agreed. However, even subspace radio isn't instantaneous.

Space Ghost · Post by **Space Ghost** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:27 am

GrahamKennedy wrote:Back in sailing ship days, foreign countries were months or even years away from one another. In such cases it wasn't practical to send for an ambassador or diplomat every time a problem came up. So it wasn't at all unusual for ship captains to negotiate treaties, agree terms, all that stuff. simple necessity.

Something of the sort would undoubtedly hold true in Trek. In fact given that Starfleet ships are made mainly for exploration, it would only be sensible and expected that every Captain is basically a general Ambassador of the Federation.

Indeed. US captains were notorious for making their own policy on the spot because of little or direction from the amateurish diplomatic corps in Washington and, of course, lack of modern communications.

Post by **Teaos** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:01 am

I believe all officers are semi official ambassiodrs of their countries and all crew are expected to act as ambassidors whislt on forign territory.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:20 pm

Teaos wrote:I believe all officers are semi official ambassiodrs of their countries and all crew are expected to act as ambassidors whislt on forign territory.

That's more of a guideline on how to act in port. IE: don't get drunk, destroy a bar and rape the local woman.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:47 pm

While the point about Starfleet's tendency towards long-range missions, and thus the necessity for it's Captains to be able to conduct negotiations, is sound, I don't see how that applies to the Cardassian situation. The Cardassian border is only a few days travel from Earth, as shown by the number of times Sisko and co. shuttled back and forth between the station and Earth. Given this short distance, it would make more sense to send someone out from Earth than leave the negotiations in the hands of Starfleet. Of course, part of the reason for installing Jellico was to cover Picard's infiltration of the suspected biogenic weapons facility, but that would never have worked if negotiations were typically carried out by civilian diplomats. The only logical conclusion is that Federation foreign policy is partially, or even wholly conducted by Starfleet.

Post by **Teaos** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:50 pm

That's more of a guideline on how to act in port. IE: don't get drunk, destroy a bar and rape the local woman.

Sure its just how they act but all officers are semi official Ambassidors fully able to talk with the locals.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:58 pm

Teaos wrote:
Sure its just how they act but all officers are semi official Ambassidors fully able to talk with the locals.

No kidding, anyone on the ship can talk to the locals. However only certain officers on the ship are permitted to act in an official capacity. And that's usually restricted to arranging the restocking of supplies, the days of the ships CO negotiating trade treaties are long over.

Post by **Mikey** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:39 pm

Again, however, judging by the number of times that Picard was specifically sent to act as an envoy, it seems that Starfleet' spicked officers are at least a part of the "official" diplomatic corps.

And using the ridiculously short travel time that was exhibited between DS9 and Earth only helps to point out the lack of understanding of travel time that the writers expressed.

Captain Picard's Hair · Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:54 pm

The longest travel times noted in DS9, to the Nyberrite Alliance and the planet where the baseball league was located, were given in terms of weeks. This still falls well short of the eight years it "should" take to cross the Federation.