KUALA LUMPUR: When George Shultz passed away earlier this week at the ripe age of 100, the world lost not only a centenarian, but a consummate diplomat. Shultz most notably served as the US secretary of state during much of the Ronald Reagan administration, a time of colorful strife across many continents under the then overarching aegis of the Cold War.

It was also a time when I gradually came of age, at least intellectually, before I turned 10. The momentous events, mostly tragedies with few triumphs in between, that were popping up around the globe — frequent hijacks of planes and ships, indiscriminate bombings of military and civilian targets, overnight coups and outright invasions and brutal civil wars, to name a few — shaped my worldview to a large extent. And it was not a pretty view, not at all. Instead, it was a cruel and often heartless world urgently in need of some “fixing.”