Commas, Coffee, and Crisis
Drone Dance-Off and Diplomatic Drama: When World Leaders Play Crisis Ping-Pong WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/TEHRAN I n a week that looked like it was scripted by screenwriters who ran out of coffee, ideas, and possibly their sanity, the Trump-Putin phone call was followed almost immediately by a fresh surge in Russia-Ukraine drone attacks. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iranian officials were reportedly drafting a memorandum to stop the conflict and, in what has become the hottest new genre of diplomatic performance art, “open the straights.” (No, not the kind you find in a yoga class.) The sequence produced international anxiety usually reserved for realizing you left your phone on airplane mode during a crucial group chat and that awkward family dinner where everyone suddenly remembers that one embarrassing story. After the call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Russian and Ukrainian forces responded by escalating their drone wars, turning East...