the Concavity Cabinet: Interdependence as blackmail

The friendly word decoded as coercion: "Interdependence is as Interdependence does" is Tine's tautology for using the ceded territory as a dump "no matter whose nation's name they're in," and the escalation of headers — "HAVE SOME TERRITORY," "BUT I INSIST," "TAKE THE TERRITORY OR YOU'RE GOING TO BE REALLY REALLY SORRY" — is a mugging conducted in the grammar of generosity. Interdependence names the relation exactly: not mutual aid but mutual entanglement enforced by threat.