As ambassador to Macedonia during the Kosovo war, Poland during that country’s climb to democracy, South Korea during difficult talks with its northern neighbor, and Iraq as the United States was trying to determine how to extricate itself, Hill had to live foreign policy, not just ponder it.

Now a former US ambassador who has negotiated his way through some of the world’s most tense political moments says the current threat of the Islamic State is equally severe. “Today we are confronting some of the most difficult problems we’ve had in a long time. Some of them are amenable to some process of negotiation but unfortunately many are not,” Christopher Hill told news.com.au.