The US and South Korea should suspend joint military exercises to encourage diplomacy

The diplomacy lens matters because this was not only a military pause. It was also a negotiated pause assembled through intermediaries, public statements, and a still-uncertain next phase.

Steps by armed forces or governments to reduce military tensions and the risk of wider conflict, including troop pullbacks, pauses in strikes, and communication channels between adversaries.

Political, military and diplomatic relations between the two Koreas, including inter-Korean dialogue and its breakdown, border incidents and the military balance on the Korean Peninsula, shaped by the positions of the United States, China and Russia.