"Dark Matter of World Politics" is now finally published online *open access* in @IntOrgJournal! This began as a conversation with @JenniferMitzen on trust in IR & in world politics, following my Natl Interest blog post on 2019 Trump-Kim Hanoi summit. A🧵https://t.co/G8U9FbjmKc

Much IR trust scholarship focuses on trust between leaders. We propose another type of trust is important in world politics, international system trust, a feeling of confidence in the international social order that conditions the meaning & effects of interpersonal(I-P) trust.

Like "dark matter" of the social world, system trust holds the international system together. Without system trust the system works differently & the dynamics of interpersonal trust would have different world political effects. Therefore, we pull it from the background.

Summit diplomacy is one site for reproducing int’l system trust. The Reagan-Gorbachev 1985 Summit is seen as a triumph of inter-personal trust. Conversing w/@Prof_MHolmes @WheelerICCS we flag int’l system trust thru summit diplomatic practices reproducing state persons.

The + effects of I-P trust that IR trust scholarship assumes rely on ongoing reproduction of int’l system trust. W/ personalistic politics on the⬆️ it’s impt to pay attn to this dark matter. We don’t know much about dynamics/effects of mere interpersonal trust in world politics!