Rex Tillerson and the Pursuit of Profit in American Foreign Policy
By Geoffrey Gertz
Assuming he survives his confirmation hearing this week, Rex Tillerson will become the first secretary of state to have never served in government or the military, having instead spent 41 years in the business world working for oil giant Exxon.
Where Clinton espoused using economic tools to advance political objectives, Trump is likely to turn this maxim on its head, using political means and might to secure economic gains. Whether in calls to “take the oil” from Iraq and the Middle East, or suggestions that the US-Taiwan relationship could be used as a bargaining chip in an economic deal with China, Trump has repeatedly viewed foreign policies as instruments for promoting America’s immediate economic and commercial interests. The broader strategic, ideological and values-driven concerns which have typically been foundational to US foreign policy – promoting democracy and human rights, increasing American soft power and influence, cultivating a network of alliances and supporting an open and stable international order – are at best subservient to economic goals, and more likely altogether irrelevant.
This, far more than any alleged Russophilia, is the necessary context for making sense of Rex Tillerson as the next secretary of state. Tillerson’s key qualification for the job is the decades he spent learning how to manage political relationships with foreign governments well enough to ensure the oil and money keep flowing.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international-affairs/313392-rex-tillerson-and-the-pursuit-of-profit-in-american
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"political means and might to secure economic gains"
Venezuela could be an early target. It wouldn't surprise me if Tillerson and Cheney are buds and have a small book of bullshit excuses all ready to go to justify an invasion to save The People from the incompetent, EVIL SOCIALISTS!!!!!
Oh yes...and might as well "take the oil" while we're there. 
Otherwise, "T. Rex" will have access to State Department records that could be very helpful to his pals in determining where various oil-rich countries belong on their target list. Or whatever.
