This is the first part of two-part series by Stephan Haggard on prospects for the upcoming North Korea-U.S. summit. 

It is increasingly evident that the United States will need to put something on the table to make the upcoming summit work. What might be on offer? Before turning to possible bids, however, it is important to understand how summitry works.

First, the standard summit process involves lengthy prior negotiations to avoid surprises. Yet leaders who rely less on inter-agency process or have a lot of discretion (ie., Kim Jong Un) are more prone to use the summit itself to