Kim/Trump Summit Disaster

[Belsnickel]

(02-28-2019, 01:04 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Walk me through it.  An impact to who?  I could see the citizens of NK but they are probably told a bunch of BS anyway.  Who are the people/countries who are now thinking, "Trump met with him?  Wow this dude's legit."?  It's like wonks have their own language that nobody else pays attention to.  "This means this, and this means that" and the rest of the world goes on thinking this dude is still a crazy bastard.

Like I said, since foreign policy isn't my forte I can't really get into the weeds on it like I could some other things like finance, oversight, or higher ed. I will agree, though, that wonks do have their own language and it is especially true with regard to foreign policy. The intricacies and the number of moving parts makes it difficult to parse through, and unless you have been involved in the diplomatic process it's near impossible.

One thing that is true of domestic and international politics is that a lot of it works on political capital, this intangible thing that politicians carry with them that allows them to get things done. Call it clout, or power, or gravitas, or whatever, but I tend to think of it as capital because it can be earned and it can be spent. When two politicians meet, there is an exchange of capital. How much each one gains or loses depends on the variables involved and how the meeting ends up. No matter the weight of the meeting, from two freshman Representatives in a DC coffee shop to two heads of state, there is this exchange of capital. The meetings between Trump and Kim have both resulted in a boost to Kim's capital. Just by the positions they hold within their respective countries, Trump has more political capital on the international stage than Kim. Because of this, interactions that appear neutral put them on the same level, giving more political capital to Kim than to Trump, and sometimes at the expense of Trump's capital.