That is indeed the Secretary of State's job. We haven't had a time during my lifetime when American interests were not in some way in danger overseas, so there has never been a legitimate reason for the Secretary of State to spend much time in the United States.
The job of the Secretary of State has gotten incredibly more difficult, mostly since the nations that the American interests previously would casually exploit with impunity have made clear that they'll take American lives if the United States engages in such transgressive behavior now. The proliferation of insurgency tactics, first used to great effect by the Viet Cong, has undercut the value of the rabid bullying the United States has typically used to subjugate other nations to its will. (Incidentally, this accounts for a good portion of the dampening of upside potential for the American economy, which in turn accounts for some of the efforts we have seen in recent decades to secure the stream of excessive economic upside enjoyed by some in our society through what can be seen as something analogous to bullying tactics within the American economy itself. It makes sense that excessive prosperity, which was once secured through bullying tactics which become less effective, would be sought using similar tactics applied where insurgency is less viable as a counter-measure.) Some American Presidents choose to ignore how the bullying tactics they employ foster later insurgency reprisals, and others don't, which accounts for some variability with regard to the difficulty of the Secretary of State's work. Clearly, American interests are in somewhat less danger just after some bullying action followed by far greater danger after the immediate intimidation effect wears off, greatly increasing the difficultly of the job.
A tangential thought about the concerns about carbon footprint of a single person flying around the world on diplomatic missions: News I read this week posits that the pollution associated with being a meat eater is greater than that of being an airline passenger. I'm not sure if that would be true of someone who flies as much as the Secretary of State should, but by the same token, I believe Biden has cut down his consumption of beef.
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Originally Posted by Gregg
