Star Wars

Russia’s one ally may end up being North Korea. What the two countries have in common is the threat to use nuclear weapons as a solution to diplomatic issues.  Obviously, there are other countries with nuclear capabilities but they're not likely to go ballistic. Back during World War II, the O.S.S did psychohistories of leaders. Hitler was, of course, one. Whether they got into the business with his niece is not clear, but the psychological profiling was helpful in predicting behavior. In the case of Kim Jong-un you have the notorious eradication of his Uncle, Jang Song-thaek, purportedly with a mortar and there's also the poisoning of his half-brother, Kim Jong-nam. They were not a close family. In the case of Vladimir Putin, you have the former wife, Lyudmila Shkrebneva, the two daughters, Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova and the girlfriend, Alina Kabaevna (with whom he may have had children). All of these relationships comprise the chrysalis of the current situation and help to throw light on how both dictators will act in response to provocation. The real problem is what happens when Putin and Kim Jong-un stop getting along. Then you have Star Wars.

read "Promiscuous and Protean" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and listen to "The Harder They Come" by Jimmy Cliff