REFLECTIONS

Pompeo and Circumstance: A 'Rexit' State of Affairs

undefined and VP of Global Analysis
Reva Goujon
VP of Global Analysis, Stratfor

Mar 13, 2018 | 22:34 GMT

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson leaves the podium after a news conference at the State Department in Washington on March 13, 2018.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson leaves the podium after a news conference at the State Department in Washington on March 13, 2018. Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that he had fired Tillerson and has nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.

(ALEX WONG/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The rise of loyalists in the White House risks weakening a critical check on President Donald Trump's foreign policy agenda.
  • CIA Director Mike Pompeo, tapped to be the next U.S. secretary of state, has backed a last-ditch diplomatic effort with North Korea as a long-term containment strategy against China.
  • Though the risk of failure in the dialogue with North Korea is high, Pompeo's push for denuclearization stems in part from the proliferation threat between North Korea and Iran.
  • As the Iran nuclear deal weakens and as sanctions pressure climbs again, Tehran will expend more energy on defending a regional sphere of influence.

The long-rumored "Rexit" has finally transpired and CIA Director Mike Pompeo has been tapped to replace Rex Tillerson as U.S. secretary of state. With a high-stakes diplomatic gamble with North Korea looming, an economic assault against China underway and an Iran nuclear deal on life support, U.S. President Donald Trump has switched out a cautious corporate outsider with a hard-line Washington insider to head up the diplomatic arm of the United States at a particularly frenetic time for U.S. foreign policy. So, what now?...

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