Editor's note: Jia Wenshan is a professor at the School of Communication of Chapman University and an adjunct professor at Shandong University in China. The article reflects the author's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

I. Misnomer or Misplacement?  

Mr. Mike Pompeo was likely to run the State Department like another CIA and this can be worrisome – such was the warning by several U.S. media outlets when he was up for a confirmation hearing as Secretary of State on April 26, 2018. Mr. Pompeo served as CIA Director from 2017 to 2018. A commentator warned in March 2018 that State Department under Mr. Pompeo's leadership would be "a wholly owned subsidiary of the CIA." A guest writer for Huffington Post also commented that given the notoriety of CIA and Pompeo's problematic political views, "having a former CIA Director as Secretary of State will only make things worse" for America. Nevertheless, a silent majority seemed to expect that he would change his role once he assumed the position of Secretary of State.

However, less than a year and half since his confirmation as the 70th Secretary of State, another observer simply called Mr. Pompeo "Donald Trump's de facto intelligence czar." Today, I have also found Mr. Pompeo's diplomatic actions prove these media pundits' observations correct.  

II. Incongruence between Name and Substance as a Source of Human Disasters

Mr. Pompeo has been doing the job of a CIA Director in the name of Secretary of State. While a CIA Director tends to think and act in a zero-sum mentality, a Secretary of State is supposed to think and act more or less in a win-win manner.

Mr. Pompeo seems to have confused his role and have been a blocker of efforts for international connections instead of a propeller for international collaborations, a divider instead of a multiplier, a de-coupler instead of a unifier, and finally a warmonger instead of a peacemaker. As Secretary of State, he could have pushed for creating a mechanism for dialogue between the Trump Administration and the Chinese leadership to avert an escalation of the conflicts between the two countries, but he did not. Instead, he has been tirelessly and doggedly instigating such conflicts.  

On January 30, 2020, while China was fighting against COVID-2019, instead of trying to provide assistance to China, during a meeting with British foreign secretary Dominic Raab on January 30, he tried to persuade the UK to cut its ties with Huawei in building 5G and described China's political leadership as "the central threat of our times."

Besides, he pushed for the U.S.' further decoupling from China bottom up when he delivered his keynote speech at U.S. National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington, D.C. on February 8, 2020. He warned against potential "political risks" when each state develops its relationship with its Chinese counterparts.  

Pompeo's lack of appropriate leadership style even backfired domestically as former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch stated in her speech at Georgetown University on February 13, 2020 that "the State Department is in trouble" as it is "blunt" and "amoral." In the Q&A period, Ambassador Yovanovitch pointed out that while diplomacy should be win-win in nature, the current foreign policy adopted by the State Department is zero-sum and serves the "America First" doctrine which does not take the U.S. counterparts' security, interest, and values into consideration at all; in the long run, it would hurt the U.S. as well.

III. Restoring Congruence between Name and Substance

If Mr. Pompeo continues to do the work of a CIA Director in the name of Secretary of State and does not begin to work out the substance of the traditional role of Secretary of State as head of the U.S. diplomatic team, then I suggest that heads of diplomacy of other nation-states stop cooperating with him. This is because the substance of his work, solely serving Trump's "America First "doctrine and "American Comeback" doctrine, undercuts opportunities of international cooperation and only serves to sink the global community into new instability, new misery and despair.  

The world still looks at the U.S. as a leader for global governance. The U.S. Secretary of State is viewed by the world community as the face of the United States. Mr. Pompeo's job as a CIA Director in the name of Secretary of State has not only damaged the credibility of the State Department and the credibility of the U.S. in the eyes of the world community, but also dashed much hope for a better global future. It is high time that Mr. Pompeo consulted his boss and had his job description revised and started to work out the substance of the job of Secretary of State, a multiplier, a bridge-builder, and a peacemaker on the world stage.  

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