Burns warned against the Iraq war in 2003 in a memo as assistant secretary overseeing the Middle East, warning of consequences, and now more than 20 years later the 82nd Airborne is being sent back to the region and there is talk of regime change and troops in another Middle Eastern country.

Burns has spent as much time with Vladimir Putin as anyone in recent diplomatic history, both as ambassador to Russia during the Bush administration and in more recent jobs, and has deep insight into Putin's decision-making.

There is a pervasive sense in American foreign policy circles and broader American society of pessimism about America's place in the world, a sense that the US botched its opportunity in the post-Cold War era and missed whatever opportunity it had.