30 September 2015 - U.S.-China cyber agreement

Surrealism is alive and well, and we meet with it every year. A good example this year is the U.S.-China cyber agreement which is billed as forbidding commercial espionage. Of course both sides deny that they do any such thing, and few who are paying attention believe either one, and yet here we have a complex and nuanced common understanding of how to simplify away difficult issues. It’s a superb achievement in the high diplomatic art of painting a blank canvas on which everyone sees a different picture.