Kim Jong Un vs. Teddy Roosevelt: Blog 6

The only leader worse than a dictator in any modern country is an inept dictator. Kim Jong Un, as the worlds's youngest incumbent head of state, certainly fits that stereotype. Much more than his predecessors, the current Kim in power follows a "gunboat diplomacy" foreign policy much like Theodore Roosevelt, but with nuclear weapons. Roosevelt, however, was a master of subtlety. He desired peace through preparation for war. Instead of direct threats against enemies, he subdued Japan with the Root-Takahira Agreement. This favored Russia over Japan in a treaty to end the Russo-Japanese war which Japan was actually winning at the time. "Gunboat diplomacy" consisted of floating state-of-the-art ships around the world to different countries to positive reception and cheers from foreign citizens. Nuclear weapons tests, however, do not have the same positive reception. Even "gun boat diplomacy" would not work today in a geopolitical spectrum devoid of jingoism. Kim Jong Un's "military-first" ideology, started by his own grandfather, is something the former has no idea how to uphold. The nepotism of the Kim family dynasty threatens the ideology of the family itself. Although North Korean propaganda and aggression is primarily directed against the United States, Kim Jong Un has a lot to learn from one of our former presidents.