Amateur Hour: Using Historical Lessons to Assess the Trump-Kim Summits

Abstract

My research examines President Donald J. Trump’s approach to recent summits with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, drawing on historical lessons from five summits since 1955. After President Trump entered office, U.S.-North Korea tensions increased dramatically, with the president threatening to counter North Korean aggression with “fire, fury, and frankly power, the likes of which the world has never seen before.”1 However, the administration soon pursued a diplomatic path, convening a historic summit in Singapore in June 2018. Since then, Trump and Kim have met on two other occasions, though each of these summits has failed to secure North Korea’s denuclearization. My qualitative analysis of five case studies—the 1955 Geneva Summit, the 1961 Vienna Summit, Nixon’s 1972 trip to China, Carter’s 1978 Camp David Summit, and the 1986 Reykjavik Summit—suggests the president is ignoring important historical lessons on summitry and pursuing a flawed approach in his dealings with Kim. However, with proper adjustments, President Trump’s summit negotiations could secure an interim nuclear agreement—an imperfect but preferable outcome—and further the conflict’s resolution.