*PING* This effort on the part of Secretary Pompeo to offer Southeast Asian countries an alternative to Chinese investment plus the latest declaration on Crimea, you can disagree with personally — but they do not seem “tripolar” minded to me. Secretary Mattis also not interested in “shared” spheres of influence under current conditions.
Trade war with China and sanctions against Russia will proceed until the regimes of these two places adjust their malign behavior.
Not like Mattis has a role in making the political decision to cooperate in reconstruction of Syria.
However he did such a great job of smashing Raqqa and leaving it as rubble that the locals resent us- this might be a joint project worth undertaking