Updated

On a trip through seven nations and three different parts of the world, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson devoted himself to his president's overarching foreign policy mission: Defeating terrorism.

His trip concluded Thursday with limited success.

In the Persian Gulf and Iraq, the top American diplomat sought to keep a region fracturing at the seams focused on defeating the Islamic State group and countering Iran.

In Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, Tillerson addressed long-term plans for stabilizing an Afghan government besieged by the Taliban insurgency.

In Switzerland, he dove back into the years-long drive to end Syria's civil war, the origins of an IS threat that has spread worldwide.

In understatement, Tillerson noted Thursday that many countries he visited over the last week "are still embroiled in significant conflict."