International Politics

(Graphic generated by deepai.org from my prompt.)

International politics–Trump, Putin, and Xi are all masters at this game–works like this.

Layout

There are two chessboards for each adversarial pair:

• Trump vs Putin,
• Trump vs Xi, and
• Putin vs Xi.

Between each pair of chessboards is a divider. You can’t see through it.

On your side, you can move your pieces anytime on any of your boards and in any manner. You are not obligated to tell the other player(s) what you’ve done. It’s entirely up to you.

They, of course, have the same options on their sides of the three boards.

Obviously, you can tell the truth. You can move your pieces exactly as you claim, and then tell everyone the complete, honest-to-God, truth. That’s the peaceful approach.

Honesty is, they say, the best policy.

Trust But Verify

Yeah, but do you really trust them?

Each side has ways–some sneaky, some not so much–of verifying what you claim. They can send high altitude drones over the divider and take a picture of your layout. And they have spy satellites that pass way overhead periodically.

So, most of the time, it behooves you (and them) to tell the truth.

You also move their pieces (on your side) to wherever you think they are on their side. Why? Because that’s where they said they moved, or because you think they moved them in a particular way in spite of what they said.

And you know that, for various reasons, they might or might not be telling the truth.

If they lie, when your spy satellites let you know where their pieces really are, you can then correct their positions on your side of the board.

But, of course, there is a delay. And during that time, they can get away with things without your knowledge. For a little while.

Spies and Counter-Spies

You can, if you feel sneaky, peek over the wall to glimpse the other player’s board. And you can, very surreptitiously when they’re not looking, reach around and plant one of your pieces on their side. You might give that piece a radio and a camera so it can relay back what they discover.

If you get away with these sneaky moves, that’s great. You’ll have a definite advantage. But if you get caught, they can immediately scramble all their pieces in any way they like.

But beware!

Maybe they’ll turn your spy into a counter-spy! Maybe they’ll convince your piece to send you false information.

Honesty Is The Best Policy … Usually

Most moves have to be to everyone’s benefit. It’s the only way to really keep the peace.

“I’ll keep my forces to the north side of the board if you’ll keep yours to the south,” you might say. “And if you lend me a knight and three pawns in the northeast corner, I’ll let you use my bishop on white squares–oh, wait, sorry, he’s on black now–and four pawns in the center. Deal?”

This is how International politics work. It behooves both players to cooperate and tell the truth … for the most part. But it’s also of great benefit to sometimes bluff, tell a little white lie, drag your feet doing something, hold your hand over part of your board when you know their satellite is going to pass overhead, and maybe even betray the other player.

The Armegeddon Option

And, of course, each side always has the option of firing nuclear missiles over the divider, or sending smaller forces around the divider to invade the opponents territory. These actions will, quite naturally, have consequences. That’s part of the game, too.

The Real Game

Do we always know what Trump is up to?

No.

For obvious reasons, he can’t tell us because then they’d know, too. He wouldn’t be able to bluff even though Putin and Xi are. That would give them a huge advantage. Trump can’t afford to do that because doing so would damage his position–our position–in each of those games.

Sometimes it’s necessary to bluff, to delay, to act like you’ve got your pieces in a really good place, or to play like you have nothing of interest to them, in order to win.

Real life is real. It’s not a game. And Trump, Putin, and Xi are masters at this.

You and me, not so much.

So, if you think life is scarey, then guess what?

You’re right. It is.