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We just pulled out of a major nuclear arms control agreement with Russia and it's barely a page one story because everything is on fire.
But it's not like, um, an increased threat of civilization-ending global nuclear war is something people might want to discuss or be concerned about.
Arms control is subtle and complex, with unimaginably high stakes. Reaching meaningful agreements was a tremendous accomplishment in a particularly dangerous period of history, the culmination of decades of moves and countermoves on both sides. They aren't like business deals.
These agreements took years to come to despite the fact that both sides wanted them. That's how hard arms control is. And it can fall apart far more easily than it can be put back together.
Anyway, some vaguely competent leadership would be nice right now.
One reason we didn't blow each other up during the cold war was the Nash equilibrium created by both sides precisely understanding the situation. The systematic marginalization of institutions (State, Intel, etc) that analyze our situation makes the world much more dangerous.
Intelligence agencies need to be regulated with strong oversight, of course. But it's indisputable that the government of a superpower absolutely needs a reliable stream of intelligence and analysis to navigate complex international issues.
Anyway, all this is larger than Trump (or any one president). But Trump is the one on whose plate this complex problem has landed, and his simplistic, zero-sum approach to both analysis and negotiation causes me great concern here.
