There's no doubt that Donald Trump's election initiated a major disruption at the State Department. Many long-serving senior officials resigned immediately before or after inauguration day. The hum of diplomats complaining that their expertise is being ignored has continued. When Elizabeth Shackelford (lauded by Foreign Policy a "rising star at the State Department") resigned very publicly in early December, she complained that State had "ceded to the Pentagon our authority to drive US foreign policy." The question is, will disruption lead to genuine change?

If outgoing senior diplomats are replaced with careerists and entrenched junior peace processors, the Trump shake-up will be just sound and fury. On the other hand, bringing in qualified experts from outside the State Department rank-and-file might lead to meaningful and important changes. If the rumor is true that David Schenker of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy will be the new Deputy Assistant for Near East Affairs, it's a good start.

Genuine change at the State Department will require more than one year of the unpredictable Trump administration. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman recently began urging the State Department to stop using the term "occupation". When the State Department complies, we'll know something big has happened. Until then, celebrations are premature.

Pompeo has previously suggested he favors regime change in North Korea, though, he said in December, "I've learned the art of nuance in my 10 months" at the CIA. "So suffice it to say, I hope that diplomatic and economic pressure will help resolve this in a way that doesn't require a military outcome that I know nobody is excited about." Pompeo has also been a leading critic of the nuclear deal with Iran. He took the unusual step of sending a warning letter to Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Al-Quds force, which operates in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. Leon Panetta, who served as a CIA director under President Obama, says he and Pompeo speak regularly about the job they've shared. "God bless Mike Pompeo for having the ability to sit down with the president and have the president listen. I was a little worried about that," said Panetta, who appeared alongside Pompeo at the event held at the Reagan Library. "But if Mike is doing that, and the president is engaged, that is extremely important to the president being able to do the job."