In less than three months, the Trump administration has radically reconfigured America’s relationships with both traditional allies and adversaries. So how do you make sense of foreign and economic policy during the first three months of his new administration? Now back at the Kennedy School (she had served as a professor of practice), Ambassador Wendy Sherman is working to assess the motivations behind presidential actions that have changed the course of geopolitics and economics in ways she says could have profound repercussions on everything from global economic stability to the future of democracy to nuclear proliferation. A diplomat’s diplomat and winner of the presidential National Security Medal, Sherman is no stranger to decoding the moves and motivations of enigmatic world leaders and autocrats. During the Clinton administration, she was a counselor to the State Department and coordinated policy for the United States’ negotiations with North Korea and President Kim Jong Il about its nuclear missile program. During the Obama years, she was appointed as undersecretary of state for political affairs by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was the lead negotiator for the Iran nuclear deal between the regime in Tehran and the five UN Security Council permanent members—the U.S., China, Russia, France, and the UK—as well as Germany. Under President Biden, she became the first woman to serve as deputy secretary of state and was the department’s point person on relations with President Xi Jinping and China. Now she’s a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a Hauser Leadership Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership, where she is also a former director. She joins PolicyCast host Ralph Ranalli to discuss the places—some of them potentially dangerous—Trump seems to be taking the U.S. and the world. Wendy Sherman’s Foreign Policy Recommendations for non-U.S. World Leaders: * Prioritize the interests of your own country and citizens by focusing on ensuring global peace, security, and prosperity. * Maintain open lines of communication with the U.S. regardless of short-term changes in friendly or adversarial relations. * Respond to ongoing events while maintaining perspective about the changeability of U.S. and international politics.