Give thanks to the Lord that Nikki Haley was used to offer positive guidance to a situation that could have been devastating to the world at large.

“Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory.” (Prov. 11:14)

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… Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations … is swiftly becoming the Cabinet superstar.

She took the lead in persuading China and Russia to join the sanctioning of North Korea, all to persuade Kim Jong-un to think again about his boastful threat to ignite World War III.

Such a catastrophe might at last be “the war to end war,” as Woodrow Wilson said of World War I. Mr. Kim’s reckless exuberance with his nuclear toys has terrified the world into a new reality, and Nikki Haley used it to win approval of United Nations Resolution 2371, which she calls “the single largest economic package ever leveled against the North Korean regime” and “the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.”

If enforced to the limit — a big “if” — the effects could reduce Pyongyang’s exports by $3 billion, a third of its revenue from exports of coal and minerals, which in turn is key to keeping its nuclear and missile scientists at work.

“The international community is standing with one voice,” Mrs. Haley says. “China didn’t pull off. Russia didn’t pull off. All of the Security Council and the international community said, ‘That’s enough.’ ” Mr. Kim’s provocations have exhausted the patience even of China, his enabler and patron. “It’s reckless. It’s irresponsible, and the international community really laid down the groundwork of saying, ‘We’re not going to watch you do this any more.’ “….

This is not the kind of talk the rest of the world is accustomed to hearing from the American ambassador to the United Nations. Mrs. Haley reported for duty at a United Nations puzzled and despondent over the defeat of Hillary Clinton, and many regarded her as a patronage payoff by the new president, and would finish her term at the U.N. with just another entry on her resume and leave for the speaking circuit to cash in on political celebrity. “No one at the United Nations,” said one professor pundit, “will think Nikki Haley is someone to talk to who will be either knowledgeable or close to the president.”

The professor missed by only a mile. Perhaps buoyed on such modest expectations, she has prospered at the U.N., working hard to build close relationships with other delegations, particularly those of America’s European allies. Over the first months of her tenure she earned the respect of other delegates that enabled her to rally support for American positions on Syria as well as North Korea.

Her frequent and aggressive scolding of Russian support for President Bashar Assad in Syria earned her a reputation for leading, as well as following, American policy. She squelched the long-standing Russian goal of making Russia the moral actor in the Syrian civil war. She still won Russian support for the sanctions vote.

Little more than a year ago she seemed unlikely to be a part of a Trump administration. She clashed with Mr. Trump the candidate on the eve of the South Carolina primary, having endorsed Mario Rubio, and said sharp things about Mr. Trump. “During anxious times,” she said, “it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation.”….

Someone asked her the other day whether she had to twist arms to bring Russia and China along on the sanctions vote. She replied with one word: “Lots.” (Excerpts from Suzanne Fields’ article in the Washington Times)