New people are struggling in an increasingly disheveled world to see if they can bring about some kind of more useful order.

Hi, I'm Ian Bremmer, and welcome to the GZero World podcast, an audio version of what you

can find on public television where I analyze global topics, sit down with big guests, and make

use of little puppets. This week I sit down with former ambassador Tom Pickering, who served more

than four decades as a top-level diplomat,

an ambassador pretty much everywhere, and even led the congressional investigation to the 2011

Benghazi attacks. He's the right person to talk to at a time when America's role in the world

is an open question. Let's get to it.

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Ambassador Tom Pickering, Vice Chairman Hilsen Company, career diplomat. You've been ambassador everywhere. Do we still have career diplomats? Are there any left?

Yes, we do. There are some left.

There have been a lot of people leaving the State Department.

Look, the top level. If you had 15, 20, 25 years experience, most are gone, and that's a loss.

I have been told that morale at the State Department under Pompeo is improved.

Is that true?

I think you have to say that morale under Tillerson could not have gotten any worse.

So Pompeo gets credit. And I was in the Foreign Service beginning in

1959 and I've never known a year when people didn't say morale is as bad as has ever been.

Really?

...