"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them." Hamlet
With the furious recent press reporting on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson – White House leaks on his disparaging comments about the president, bureaucratic in-fighting over Korea and Iran, Tweets from the president undercutting Rex's Middle East negotiations - it's tempting to compare the Secretary of State’s mental travails with Danish Prince Hamlet.
- The anguish felt by Tillerson is Hamlet-like. Reflecting the long tradition of American diplomacy, Rex has urged maintaining negotiating paths as alternatives short of conflict in resolving the increasingly worrisome stand-off with North Korea and the "Sunni family squabble" between Qatar and Saudi Arabia; yet despite the obvious merits of these urgings, he has been publicly rebuffed in both instances by his boss.
But stepping back from the emotional bursts, both public and private, of the president and his Secretary of State, it's useful to reflect on why mainstream Republican foreign policy hands – with the exception of Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass – have urged Tillerson to remain, not resign:
- First, Tillerson is an adult. Given the increasing dangers in NE Asia and now with Iran, we need adults around President Trump. Senator Bob Corker put the dangers starkly when he said that the president could set the nation "on the path to WW III." Less dramatically but equally seriously, the Trump trade team is launching cheap shots with Canada and Mexico and threatening a pull-out of NAFTA – an outcome no mature statesman would encourage.
- Second, Tillerson has forged a national security relationship with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis that is bureaucratically aligned and seamless in its articulation. The benefits of this alignment cannot be too frequently repeated: when Secretaries from disparate agencies like Bob Gates and Condi Rice, or William Perry and Madeleine Albright, are aligned, U.S. foreign policy execution is powerful - and understandable.
- Finally, Rex links foreign policy issues; he's not thinking "vertically" (i.e., Iran separate from Korea); Tillerson, like Mattis, thinks "horizontally" (i.e., the Iran nuclear deal LINKED to defusing North Korea, dealing with Russia, modernizing trade agreements). Backing out of the Iran deal, for example, makes an already slim prospect of negotiating a modus vivendi with Pyongyang virtually zero.
Whether the president is listening to Tillerson and Mattis is a separate issue; unfortunately, Trump's instinct for impulsive behavior appears undiminished.
- Hamlet of course was ultimately dispatched by the poisoned sword of Laertes. If one believes in maintaining a negotiated path to solve national security crises, in understanding critical linkages embedded in ongoing security challenges, and in U.S. credibility, one should hope that, for Secretary of State Tillerson, the poisoned swords of the White House remain sheathed.
