Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The move came as a surprise even though the president's dissatisfaction with Tillerson was well known and the departure had been rumored for months. Dismissal is the president's prerogative, but the manner in which it was done does not inspire confidence that this move will remedy problems that have engulfed this administration in general, and foreign policy in particular.
Trump picked Tillerson to be his secretary of state after a distinguished career at ExxonMobile, concluding as its chief executive. He had no formal training in diplomacy — although that job required him to negotiate with heads of state and navigate geopolitical currents — but Trump reportedly thought he looked the part.
Tillerson had a rocky tenure at the State Department. He quickly alienated staff by adopting an insular style that relied on a small circle of intimates, seemingly ignoring and disdaining career foreign service officers and he focused on cutting the department by one-third. He embraced rather than fought draconian budget cuts. Senior officials retired, depriving the State Department of knowledge and experience, and morale plummeted among those who remained. Post-mortems — like analyses before he was fired — concluded that Tillerson will be remembered as a disastrous secretary of state.