Whoever enters the Oval Office on January 20, 2017 will face an array of foreign policy crises that were unimaginable a quarter of a century ago. In 1991, optimists declared the “end of history” after the Berlin Wall came down - Professor Francis Fukuyama famously predicted "the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."

Things haven’t quite worked out that way in varied places across the globe, from Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Crimea, Russia, Afghanistan, China and the South China Sea.  All of these pressing issues will be clamoring for the attention of the new president and his or her staff.  But lurking, as always, somewhere in the shadows, will be North Korea.