diplomacy

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Germany last week and heads to Mexico this week, amid growing questions about how much influence he has in the White House. Brendan Smialowski/AP hide caption

Mount Paektu, which sits on the border with China, is known in North Korea as the "sacred mountain of revolution" and considered the legendary birthplace of Kim Jong Il and Korean culture. David Guttenfelder/AP hide caption

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (from left) gives a tour of the World Trade Center site to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and New York Gov. George Pataki a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus, a former Montana senator, recently became the first American envoy to China to visit all of the country's provinces. "We Americans have an obligation to come to China, to learn more about China," he tells NPR. "Why? Because with each passing day, it's going to be more and more in our future." Anthony Kuhn/NPR hide caption

U.S. envoy Bernard Aronson speaks at the State Department in Washingon on Feb. 20, 2015. Secretary of State John Kerry said Aronson announced that Aronson would be the special envoy to Colombia, where he helped negotiate an end to that country's 52-year war. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Randy Berry, the first U.S. special envoy for the rights of LGBTI persons, is shown at a gay pride rally in Sao Paulo, Brazil, last June. He says the U.S. is supporting activists worldwide but recognizes the risks they face in many countries. A gay activist who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh was hacked to death this week. Courtesy U.S. State Department hide caption

President Obama shakes hands with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud following a meeting in November at the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

ADP Co-chairs Daniel Reifsnyder (left) and Ahmed Djoghlaf (center) say their negotiation work is difficult but worth it. "We only have one planet, you know," Reifsnyder says. "We have to protect it." Courtesy of IISD/ENB hide caption