U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry disembarks from his plane after arriving at Vienna International Airport on July 13, 2014. (Jim Bourg/AFP/Getty Images)

Secretary of State John Kerry has a lot on his plate these days, including the fight against ISIS, Ebola, tensions with Russia and the possible nuclear deal with Iran.

He’s been traveling around the world, including a stop in Berlin today, to deal with these issues, just as past secretaries of state have done.

Is it too soon to judge his performance, and how does one even go about rating the success of a secretary of state?

Jeremi Suri is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has studied these diplomats over history. He joins Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson to explore these questions.

Guest

• Jeremi Suri, professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author “Henry Kissinger And The American Century.” He tweets @JeremiSuri