Future of Diplomacy Project

President Trump is pushing Boris Johnson, the incoming prime minister of Britain, toward a hard break with the European Union. But Mr. Johnson could be constrained.

Tensions escalate between Washington and Tehran, after the president says U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone. Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nick Burns, former Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin and former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Nick Rasmussen join Andrea Mitchell to discuss.

Ambassador Nick Burns discusses the latest developments on the Iran front and how the Trump administration should respond

In this week’s brouhaha over the leaked cables from Britain’s Ambassador, Sir Kim Darroch, to his government in London describing the Trump Administration as “inept” and “dysfunctional,” Trump’s explosive reaction, and the Ambassador’s resignation, one central question has been assiduously avoided: what does Sir Kim mean by “inept” and “dysfunctional?”

By turning established diplomatic practice on its head and making an unscheduled stop to shake hands with Kim Jong Un in the DMZ, President Trump demonstrated his readiness to go the extra mile and beyond to meet the challenge his predecessor, Barack Obama, told him would define his presidency.

Kim Darroch, the U.K. ambassador to the U.S., has quit over the fallout from leaked cables showing he critiqued Donald Trump. Trump "has to put aside his hurt feelings and put the interest of the U.S. forward and... [that] is not to have a major diplomatic crisis with... our closest ally," Nicholas Burns says.

Professor Burns speaks about the resignation of U.K. Ambassador to the U.S. 

The most important variable in the current Persian Gulf confrontation is time. The Trump administration wants to play a long game, to draw the sanctions tourniquet ever tighter. Iran needs to play a short game, to escape the U.S. chokehold before it becomes fatal.

As tensions mounted between the United States and Iran, European nations pressed for a calm response, fearing that any escalation could disrupt trade through the region’s vital Strait of Hormuz, which carries up to a third of global crude oil exports traded via ships. If the strait is blocked or trade there is disrupted by conflict, analysts predict oil prices would surge.

President Trump and his aides have sent a dizzying, seemingly conflicting set of messages to Iran in recent weeks, ordering more troops to the Middle East and a carrier to the Arabian Sea as military threats even while declaring that Washington is seeking new negotiations, not war.