Power Ranking of World Leaders

Here's the new power rankings of world leaders. The last one was posted on April 17.

Rank	Leader	Country	Previous Rank
1	Xi Jiangping	China	1
2	Kim Jong-un	North Korea	2
3	Moon Jae-in	South Korea	8
4	Emmanuel Macron	France	4
5	Narenda Modi	India	Not Ranked
6	Donald Trump	United States	9
7	Angela Merkel	Germany	Not Ranked
8	Mohammad bin Salman	Saudi Arabia	5
9	Hassan Rouhani	Iran	Not Ranked
10	Vladimir Putin	Russia	3

1. China still seems to be replacing the United States on the global stage as the latter is becoming increasingly isolationist when it isn't bellicose. Xi's meeting with Modi was an important step in solidifying the two most populous countries' relationship. Xi was also an invisible player in last week's Korean Summit.

2. Kim has been a masterful diplomat recently. A poll showed that 80% of South Koreans now believe he is trustworthy. It's a remarkable increase in a country in which Kim used to be about as popular as cancer. He and President Moon agreed to end the decades-long war by the end of next year. He agreed to stop testing his nukes, which was hailed has a conciliatory move, but actually his test site collapsed. In the upcoming meeting with Trump, Kim seems like the voice of reason. Yep, you read that right!

3. Moon finished hosting a successful Winter Olympics and then took a big step towards creating peace with his northern neighbor. He came across as confident and statesmen-like during the inter-Korean Summit. Not a bad start to the year.

4. Emmanuel Macron sucked up to Trump in a recent visit to Washington while politely denouncing everything Trump stands for. He played the diplomatic game very shrewdly. But can he convince Trump to stay with the Iran Deal, aka the JCPOA, and get back into the Paris Climate Accord? Those answers will truly determine how effective his diplomatic efforts are.

5. Modi met with Xi recently and oversees a growing economy. He has impressively pushed girls education. But his history of anti-Muslim sentiment is troubling and dates back to his time as Governor of Gujarat and his role in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots.

6. Usually, the President of the United States is the leader of the free world. But Trump has managed to unnecessarily antagonize allies such as Japan, start an ill-advised trade war with China, and relinquish America's role as the primary global arbiter. But he is still significant as his upcoming summit with Kim Jong-un and forthcoming decision on the Iran deal show.

7. Merkel came to Washington a few days after Macron in an attempt to achieve the same goals as the French president. She has lost much of her political capital by advocating for the acceptance of migrants within the EU, which is the intellectual way to say that she showed humanity to people who have endured horrific experiences and people don't like her any more because they are racists.

8. MBS slides down the list after his war in Yemen was deemed the biggest human catastrophe in the world. Remember, the Syrian civil war continues to rage. He jumped into the war in hopes of combating Iran's influence in Saudi Arabia's southern neighbor ,but it has become an unmitigated disaster.

9. Rouhani's last gasp of relevance depends on Trump's decision to stay or nix the 2015 multi-lateral JCPOA, commonly referred to in the U.S. as the Iran Deal, by May 12. With Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei ailing, this is the time to empower the Iranian moderates such as Rouhani. If the U.S. pulls out of the deal, not only would it hurt the U.S.'s prestige and all but assure an Iranian nuclear bomb, but it would embolden the Iranian hardliners who were against the deal from the start.

10. Norway was ranked as the country with the freest media in the world and as the happiest place in the world. But you are probably like me in that you didn't know Erna Solberg is the prime minister of Norway without googling it, and there's also no evidence to suggest Erna is responsible for those two laudable rankings, which is why Putin grabs the final spot on the list despite his autocratic ways, his illegal invasions, and his bromance with the despicable head of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. At least you've heard of him.