Tugging at the Heart-Strings

I know thinking about the Koreas and Maldives in the same light might be surprising, and heretical. It’s just that the images are certainly jarring, but also manipulative. Tiger Spirit concerns the human side of the Korean peninsula security issue. (Arguably, the security issue IS the only salient concern.) And, in a publicity stunt worthy of an award, the government of Maldives “…donned scuba gear and submerged 4 meters below the surface of sea to hold the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting, in a bid to push for a stronger climate change agreement in the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen.”

Maldives First Underwater Cabinet Meeting

The tug on the heart-strings is palpable.

As Daniel W. Drezner asks:

Just to be contrarian, however, I do wonder if it’s the case that as small island nations go, so does the rest of the world. Because they are sovereign actors, small island nations often possess greater influence than their population or GDP merits. Would a rational, cost-benefit analysis of how to allocate climate change resources between mitigation and adaptation really place such a high priority on a bunch of small countries with a combined population of less than ten million?

Blake Hounshell replies: “I doubt it — and the world has already pretty much already decided to let these nations drown.”

So, I ask: Is the damage to human welfare and the economy in the ROK worth the price of unification? Is there a more humane way to demolish the gulags in the DPRK without plunging the peninsula and region into war and economic disaster? Where humans decide to live brings with it the responsibility to tackle the problems without becoming a burden to others.