I think Donald Trump has gotten China's attention to a degree that his predecessors have not that this is a very serious matter for the United States.

I think in the context of senior government positions, I think an anecdote of what I told President-Elect Barack Obama when we had our first meeting. And I said, "You don't know me. Can you trust me? Why do you think you can trust me?" and so on. But at the end, I said, "You can count on me to be loyal to you. I will not leak. I will keep my disagreements with you private. And if I cannot be loyal, I'll leave." Loyalty means doing what you think is in the best interest of that person as well as the country.

I consider myself a Republican.

Well, I've ruffled a few feathers at all the institutions I've led. But I think that's part of leadership.

Every time we have come to the end of a conflict, somehow we have persuaded ourselves that the nature of mankind and the nature of the world have changed on an enduring basis and so we have dismantle our military and intelligence capabilities. My hope is that as we wind down in Iraq and whatever the level of our commitment in Afghanistan, that we not forget the basic nature of humankind has not changed.

No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on.

America's civilian institutions of diplomacy and development have been chronically undermanned and underfunded for far too long.