Why is a summit called a summit?

As the G20 gathers in South Africa without the US, international deal-making faces another steep climb up the Everest of diplomacy

What is the point of a political summit? Image: TNW/Getty

A question mark hangs over the G20 gathering of the world’s largest economies as it convenes in Johannesburg for the first time ever on African soil: Do international summits still matter in the age of Donald Trump?

The US president isn’t in South Africa, nor is he sending a stand-in. In his second term, Trump is conspicuously reinforcing the diplomatic predilections of his first. He eschews hours-long deliberations at multilateral forums in favour of bilateral meetings or micro-drama-style televised sit-downs in the Oval Office.

Even so, the international summit is a staple for numerous thrillers, has long been the frame for writerly visions of world peace and remains an institutionalised part of the world order.

Exactly 75 years after Winston Churchill suggested “summit” as a term for international diplomacy at the very highest level…

Read on at The New World: https://www.thenewworld.co.uk

Rashmee Roshan Lall’s Substack blog This Week Those Books explains current affairs by recommending books by experts