All of world politics is a stage, and all the world leaders are merely players, with their exits and entrance music. This theatricality of international diplomacy is ever-present, though it was perhaps rarely as visible as under the Trump administration. The former entertainer brought an intuitive understanding of the dynamics of professional wrestling to meetings more typically defined by intricate details of nuclear arsenals. Yet, even that official and prescribed seriousness hinges on diplomacy as a kind of performance, even if it is usually one so polite as to not acknowledge the stagecraft involved.

In “Wrestlemania! Summit Diplomacy and Foreign Policy Performance after Trump,” authors Benjamin S. Day and Alister Wedderburn focus on the particular stage of international summits. In particular, they examine how the actions, mannerisms, and choices made by former US President Donald Trump obliterated the false line between “performance” and “substance.” This is a lesson valuable for understanding the recent past, the actions of other right-wing populists, and the theatricality of international diplomacy in general.

“[W]e argue that wrestling is a pertinent lens through which to read international summits,” the authors write, “which also cordon off a masculinized arena in which expansive, complex issues can be distilled into a comestible narrative, arranged into a series of symbolic set pieces, and presented to a global audience.”

Diplomats are performers in multiple senses. As agents of a distant state they stand in for the state, and in turn, represent it through their own personal actions. At summits, world leaders take this on, even if they are just heads of government and not heads of state, but especially when they are both.

At the center of Day and Wedderburn’s analysis are the events leading up to, and then following from, the 2018 Singapore Summit between Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. The authors map the preceding diplomacy like a season of wrestling. This approach allowed Trump to initiate diplomacy while simultaneously threatening North Korea with nuclear oblivion, an arc that ultimately culminated in a face-to-face meeting but no lasting achievement beyond the routine de-escalation of time.

“Our argument is predicated on the belief that even the naturalized norms of decorum that conventionally govern foreign policy actors depend for their acceptance and reproduction on theatrical modes of presentation and staging. It is important to ask how these norms might help to constitute certain actors as ‘sensible,’ ‘serious,’ and ‘statesmanlike,’ even as these actors tolerate and often authorize violence, death, and environmental degradation,” the authors write.

It is unlikely that another world leader will come to power as in sync with the rules and arcs of professional wrestling as Trump, but the theatricality of diplomacy, especially summit diplomacy, will persist. Only now, instead of real adults acting on roles they’ve unconsciously rehearsed since they were children in Model United Nations, the theatrical nature is clear to see.

“The question of whether and how to regenerate or renaturalize these norms must, therefore, be accompanied by a reckoning with performance's role in their construction, maintenance, and reproduction,” conclude the authors.

Halima Gikandi reported on the ongoing drought and hardship in Somalia. A lack of rain has kept crops from growing, making it that much harder for people to get food without international aid. This precarity is compounded by the ongoing war in Somalia between the government and the insurgent group al-Shabab, whose strict rule and territorial control impose an extra burden on the farmers they can independently tax. Drought-resistant seeds are one kind of aid the international community can provide, adding some durability and resilience back into agriculture. But drought-resistant seeds will still need water to grow at all, and it appears the new rainy season will be the fifth too-short one in a row.

Olatunji Olaigbe pondered the death of Elizabeth Windsor, the late monarch of an empire that once claimed his grandparent’s native Nigeria. Describing a group chat with friends the morning before the death, Olaigbe writes, “A friend posted “Operation London Bridge to commence. Shelve your pitches or schedule it for October ending (skull face emoji).” All of this took place more than an hour before the Queen’s death was officially announced on Twitter.” Ultimately, her legacy for him is felt materially, in commissioned works postponed, and as history, as an object of Western media fascination became past tense.

Durrie Bouscaren breezed through the history and practicality of wind catchers, a passive cooling design that can be seen since at least the 12th century in cities like Yazd, Iran. A wind-catcher is a tower that opens to the wind, catching hot air and guiding it underground, where it cools off and in turn forces already-cooled air out. “Attempts to re-create wind catchers occurred during the oil crisis of the 1970s and 1980s in cities like Doha, where the Qatar University campus incorporates several equally distributed wind towers,” wrote Bouscaren. “But these projects became less common when oil prices returned to normal.”

No quarter, no quarter 3 reports.

This fish cray.

Not quite ready for Prime Time.

Gotta mourn fast.

If your political and musical tastes run from Architecture in Helsinki to Bloc Party, this tweet is for you.

Hey MBS, no cutting in line, not even with a bone saw.

Oh I was kidding when I was plotting a coup, haha unless?