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meika loofs samorzewski's avatar

I've considered this as well, and its true from a purely rational reasonable POV, however narcissists are also capricious and what they want is not always what you think you are giving in a game-theory style analysis

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George Scialabba's avatar

"The truth is that diplomacy has always involved all sorts of bullying and browbeating behind closed doors."

Right, and among the results of this kind of diplomacy was World War I, a civilization-destroying catastrophe in absolutely none of the participants' interest, followed by a peace settlement so badly bungled that another, even more catastrophic world war was inevitable, followed by a long period of nuclear=armed tension during which one or the other of the nuclear-armed powers, through accident or misunderstanding, repeatedly came close to destroying organized human life. Traditional diplomacy has been an utter, disastrous failure. Is tht what you're recommending.

As usual, your tough-minded conclusions are exactly wrong. Only painstaking confidence-building, transparent at every step, and based on the explicit recognition that international competition is wholly irrational and that weapons of mass destruction are too dangerous to allow any state to possess, offers any hope of long-range survival.

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