I’ve never quite understood it. Sarek is the Vulcan Ambassador. Luwaxana is the Ambassador of Betazed. Why do individual Federation members need their own Ambassadors? You don’t see Georgia sending Ambassadors to California for example? So what do they do?
How do Ambassadors Work within the Federation?
- Thread starter TrekTrucker
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The Federation is probably more analogous to the European Union than it is to the US Government.
Think of it more like ambassadors to the UN combined with senators or members of parliament rather than like ambassadors to other nations within the Federation (though they have those too). They are there to represent their planet's or nation's needs and views to the Federation Council and to vote on policy that affects the Federation.
Well, isn’t the Federation Council make up of representatives from each member world?
You know, I really wish the writers would actually let us know how Federation politics work. Like give us Star Trek: The West Wing or something…
Yes, just like the UN is made up of ambassadors from each member world. The difference being that the ambassadors on the Federation Council have more power to enact direct change among all the member worlds through their voting, which is why I said they were more like a combination of UN ambassadors and senators or members of parliament.
In TOS the Federation wasn't envisioned as the unified government we know it as in the other shows. It's actually stated in Journey to Babel that half the Federation was on the verge of war with the other half. In light of that, it's very understandable why individual member worlds would have their own ambassadors. When the other shows did establish the Federation as a unified state, they just kept the terminology used in TOS because it was familiar.
Lets take Sarek. He is the Vulcan ambassador. Most of the time, he represents Vulcan. In other cases he represents the whole of the federation.
As the Vulcan ambassador, he represents the interests of vulcan to other federation members, non federation members, and is involved sometimes with federation as a whole.
To me an ambassador, that isn't representing the federation as a whole, only represents there planet, or some form of coalition or sector. They don't go to Earth for any formal state business, that is for counsel/senate members to do.
So, lets say Vulcan has a border dispute with Andoria, is it federation business? Probably not at a low level. Sarek would go to Andoria, or vice versa, and negotiate. This happens all the time between states, water rights, borders, etc. that normally doesn't involve federal level, unless they can't hash out an agreement.
So, Sarek would represent the Vulcan States interests with other member states, and other non member states where Vulcan has an interest.
From Journey to babel, ambassadors may represent member states in some type of votes where negotiations may be needed. Maybe that's the way it was set up instead of a counsel/senate vote, it would be an ambassador vote at the place where the interest is.
Now as said, planetary ambassadors may represent the Federation as a whole in certain matters, like say negotiations with the Klingons. I suspect that the Federation has a pool of Federation ambassadors, like Robert Fox from A Taste of Armageddon but most of them are planetary representatives that pull double duty or people that have decades of experiance like Sarek.
The federation is a very Weak Federal Government type of system, it has to be, by the 24th century its a 1000 light years wide. Travel time, even subspace time would dictate that individual states take care of themselves, with help in the form of star fleet and other stuff from a federal level Federation. Think of Deneva, no ship has visited in a year, there taking care of themselves.
You would have counsel/senate members that are more or less permanently stationed on Earth as a planet/sector representative. Could Counsel members be called ambassadors? Maybe? Then each planet would have "ambassadors at large" roaming around the federation representing there interests.
As the Vulcan ambassador, he represents the interests of vulcan to other federation members, non federation members, and is involved sometimes with federation as a whole.
To me an ambassador, that isn't representing the federation as a whole, only represents there planet, or some form of coalition or sector. They don't go to Earth for any formal state business, that is for counsel/senate members to do.
So, lets say Vulcan has a border dispute with Andoria, is it federation business? Probably not at a low level. Sarek would go to Andoria, or vice versa, and negotiate. This happens all the time between states, water rights, borders, etc. that normally doesn't involve federal level, unless they can't hash out an agreement.
So, Sarek would represent the Vulcan States interests with other member states, and other non member states where Vulcan has an interest.
From Journey to babel, ambassadors may represent member states in some type of votes where negotiations may be needed. Maybe that's the way it was set up instead of a counsel/senate vote, it would be an ambassador vote at the place where the interest is.
Now as said, planetary ambassadors may represent the Federation as a whole in certain matters, like say negotiations with the Klingons. I suspect that the Federation has a pool of Federation ambassadors, like Robert Fox from A Taste of Armageddon but most of them are planetary representatives that pull double duty or people that have decades of experiance like Sarek.
The federation is a very Weak Federal Government type of system, it has to be, by the 24th century its a 1000 light years wide. Travel time, even subspace time would dictate that individual states take care of themselves, with help in the form of star fleet and other stuff from a federal level Federation. Think of Deneva, no ship has visited in a year, there taking care of themselves.
You would have counsel/senate members that are more or less permanently stationed on Earth as a planet/sector representative. Could Counsel members be called ambassadors? Maybe? Then each planet would have "ambassadors at large" roaming around the federation representing there interests.
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So [Planet] Ambassador and Federation Council Member are sorta the same thing in your estimation…
I can see that.
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