Mike Pompeo

Mike Pompeo served as Secretary of State from April 2018 to January 2021 after directing the Central Intelligence Agency during the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency. A West Point graduate and former Army cavalry officer, he studied law at Harvard and led manufacturing businesses in Kansas before entering Congress in 2011. His work on intelligence and security issues preceded his move into the executive branch. ^{1, 2}

Pompeo supported Trump’s rejection of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. The United States withdrew shortly after he became secretary, replacing participation in the agreement with renewed pressure on Tehran. At the same time, he pursued negotiations with North Korea. The June 2018 Singapore statement assigned him and a senior North Korean counterpart responsibility for follow-up negotiations on the leaders’ commitments concerning relations, peace on the Korean Peninsula, and denuclearization. ^{3, 4}

His department also supported the 2020 Abraham Accords, which opened or advanced normalization between Israel and several Arab states. These arrangements sought new regional partnerships while leaving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unresolved. Pompeo’s approach combined close support for Israel, opposition to Iran, and efforts to strengthen relationships with India, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. It relied on selected partnerships and bilateral bargaining while abandoning the Obama administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran. ^{2, 3}