The ever-diminishing role of Marco Rubio – POLITICO

Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, is a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center and host of the weekly podcast “World Review with Ivo Daalder.” He writes POLITICO’s From Across the Pond column.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Rome yesterday, looking to repair relations with both the Pope and the Italian government after their spats with President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.

It is a useful mission for a secretary of state. But it does raise a fundamental question: Why isn’t Rubio leading the diplomatic effort to end the war in Iran, resolve the stand-off between Israel and its neighbors, find a solution to the war in Ukraine, or forge a more stable engagement with China — to name just a few key issues other U.S. officials are leading in his stead?