Trump Administration officials entered North Korea
this weekend in a frantic effort to put the Trump-Kim back on track for its
planned June 12 happening. One can only wonder just who these officials are and
what their agenda is beyond trying to arrange the complicated administrative
arrangements that must precede any such meeting.
As someone who spent 30 years of his professional life
practicing diplomacy in the field and having been involved in setting up more
than one high-level meeting, I can’t help but wonder just who is working on
planning the substance of this meeting.
While anything that might lower the tensions on the
Korean Peninsula is welcomed, one has also to consider the implications of the
summit failing. The normal way these things are handled is that there are many
preliminary meetings, hammering out the details and positions of both sides, so
that when the leaders meet at a summit, all they have to do is bless what’s
already been decided. Trump seems hell bent on doing things bass-ackwards and treating
this whole thing like it’s one of his property deals. He’ll swoop in and stun
his opponent with his combination of bluster, bravado and charm(?), and make
the deal of a lifetime.
The problem is, international diplomacy is not like
real estate. One has to have a good feel for what an opponent’s desires and
objectives are, develop compromises that, to a degree, satisfy the goals of
both sides, and then slowly and carefully, make the outcome public. One has
also to be prepared for the talks to break down. The best time to learn this is
before a summit is announced—or even
planned—not after the summit itself.
Every president and his (or her) administration has a
learning curve. In times of crisis or potential crisis, that curve should be
steep. What I’m seeing with this administration is not an upward trending
curve, but a flat line, and as in the ICU, a flat line is not a good sign.
I’m hoping this thing doesn’t blow up in Trump’s face,
because if it does, we will all suffer.
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