> Today, the US distaste for instability, and nation-building This is an unpopular opinion, but I feel like we should generally accept nation-building doesn't

> Today, the US distaste for instability, and nation-building This is an unpopular opinion, but I feel like we should generally accept nation-building doesn't work well, countries we leave tend to go back to being horrible in a number of years after we set up a new nation there. And accepting that, and accepting sometimes that countries are completely failed, harmful to world security, and larger countries need to intervene: Annexation isn't actually a bad concept. It's absolutely frowned upon today, but I'm not sure is worse than what we've done to half a dozen countries in the past couple decades alone. The barrier to war should be high, but at the point you obliterate a nation's governing structure, defenses, and likely civic infrastructure, you should accept you have a permanent responsibility for the civilians there. And maybe the best way to be democratic about it is to establish a process that states one annexes can petition and vote for secession after they've reached a more stable position. > North Korea not having a hoard of oil or something There's that. North Korea is a property that literally only Kim Jong Un wants. And major powers seem perfectly fine to let him have it as long as he mostlyish behaves.