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Summary. A blustery businessman by nature, US president, Donald J. Trump, always leads with maximalist demands and then withdraws to a more moderate and desired goal. Threatening to erase Iran as a civilization, he stepped back from the brink and started peace talks with the Iranian leadership only when the entire force at his disposal failed to defeat Iran or calm world energy markets. The template for his playbook is President Nixon's “madman theory” of diplomatic engagement – prompt your adversaries to doubt your sanity and mental stability to the point where they are intimidated into otherwise unlikely concessions.
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The writer is a London-based academic.
