Commentary Diplomatic negotiations are definitely not a spectator sport. You could think of discussions between Russian diplomats and their NATO and American counterparts as equivalent to Baseball’s winter meetings, where general managers haggle over trades and conspire to hold down player salaries. More like “Inside Baseball.” The recent talks extend the frets that animated diplomacy in the inter-war period in the last century. Those talks produced a catchy slogan that resonates today: “Who wants to die for Danzig?” Still a good question? The phrase originated in the title of an article (“Mourir pour Dantzig?”) by the French Socialist writer Marcel Déat, published on May 4, 1939, in the Parisian newspaper L’Œuvre (journal). The article concerned one of the Nazi German ultimatums to the Second Polish Republic, demanding a transfer of control over Danzig (aka Gdansk — then a Free City with weak administrative ties to Poland). As bullyboy of the day, …
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