Note & query
Why have foreign ministers become ridiculous?
Foreign ministers have played different roles.
The éminence grise/homme sérieux: Dean Acheson, Zhou Enlai, George Shultz, Sergey Lavrov, S Jaishankar…
The good cop/bad cop: John Foster Dulles, Selwyn Lloyd, Andrei Gromyko, M Couve de Murville, Henry Kissinger, Geoffrey Howe, James Baker, Colin Powell, Wang Yi…
The moralist/public conscience: Lester Pearson, Abba Eban, Cyrus Vance, Robin Cook, Joschka Fischer, Dominique de Villepin…
Then there are some who have played (or are playing) a less familiar role:
[?]: Madeleine Albright, Michael Pompeo, Annalena Baerbock, Dominic Raab, Antony Blinken, Marco Rubio…
Diplomats have long been deferential, ineffectual, glib, or moronic – but rarely all four things at once. Why the new persona?