Tabloid Opinion: The cold reality facing Secretary Rinn

Voren Dhur

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Opinion: The cold reality facing Secretary Rinn​

Voren Dhur, Correspondent

Walking out of the ISC summit last week, Governor Rinn was on cloud nine; he entered the room a Governor, and he left hand-picked by President Thorne to spearhead a new project to rearm the sector - Secretary Rinn. But for Lucas Runn the real challenges are just on the horizon.

Whilst work has already begun on the initial units being added into this new combined force, and the funding propositions have been decided upon in principle, Rinn can point to several early successes. However, a more in-depth plan is needed, and fast; for one the lustre of the already agreed upon work fades, the citizens of the ISC, and perhaps more importantly the President, will want to see more in the pipeline. Droids, in their hundreds-of-thousands, need to be ordered, tariffs agreed, ships constructed and launched; but perhaps most concerning of all, information shared between worlds that historically, have been isolationist in their approach.

Furthermore there exist political challenges and disruptions on the horizon from one of the ISCs, and Rinns, biggest success stories; Naboo. Unless a constitution change can be brought forward (which is something of a fevered dream in a world as traditional as Naboo), Queen Parnelli will reach the end of her term, and soon. Naboo has an elective monarchy, with a two year, and two-term, limit - and Parnellis successor may not be so keen on the militarisation being championed by the present administration.

However, with the military currently flush with cash following the initial agreement on tariffs and tax revenues, Rinn will be lauded when the first order for Droids is placed. But the truth is that funding in the long term is dependent on the continued cooperation of ISC members, and the gulf of wealth between the planets that presently make contributions, seems set only to cause problems further down the line. Rinns appointment is perhaps a precursor for this dilemma, the Governor of Bestine (one of the largest contributors to the budget) being appointed as Secretary of Defence, invokes a possible policy of ‘pay to play’.

The political challenge, therefore, will be considerable. President Thorne will need to explain to members, and potential new additions to the ISC, that they will need to make large contributions to the military budget, in order to have a larger say in the affairs of the group. This certainly poses a challenge to the ‘carrot’ of the offer to new member states; raising the barriers for potential member states to scale. However, with deft diplomacy, this should be manageable.

This challenge pales in comparison to the long term issues a combined ISC force could face. As was made clear by President Thorne, the initial influx of Droids for the army itself is set to come from Blackwell, a company well connected to the ISC, but this creates an issue for the army - over-dependence on one supplier. Between the need for Blackwell to swell its profits, and ISC member states bickering over command structures as they did at the summit, the military may have teething issues that last beyond Rinns first few months in office.
 
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