U.S. Elections 2008
News & Polls
17 July 2008
Presidential Candidates’ Foreign Policy Advisers a Diverse Group
By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
Washington -- Foreign scholars, journalists and government officials closely monitor the latest foreign policy pronouncements of American presidential candidates, but they also pay close attention to the candidates’ foreign policy advisers, who can influence strongly the course of a new presidency.
During his presidential campaign, George W. Bush surrounded himself with people experienced in foreign policy and national security, many with a so-called neoconservative political philosophy.
The 2008 presidential candidates, who have been campaigning since the November 2006 mid-term elections, built their foreign policy advisory teams as the campaigns progressed. Now, less than four months from the November elections, they must sharpen the focus of their visions and offer specifics.
Democratic Senator Barack Obama has a foreign policy agenda that emphasizes multilateral engagement and reinvigorated global diplomacy, while Republican Senator John McCain brings a blend of neoconservatism and middle-of-the-road internationalism.
Nikolas Gvosdev, editor of the National Interest, said at a recent seminar on the future of U.S. foreign policy that even though many think policies will change when a new president takes office January 20, 2009, belief in such a shift is unrealistic.
Gvosdev said it is troubling that candidates and their surrogates suggest "there is a reset button for U.S. foreign policy.” Regardless of the new president’s differences with the Bush administration, most U.S. foreign policy continues along already determined long-term trends, he said.
In addition, as soon as the candidates become their parties’ formal nominees, they will begin receiving daily briefings from national intelligence officers.
These briefings help ensure a new president is fully aware of the national security issues facing the United States and help keep him from jeopardizing sensitive negotiations by making uninformed or injudicious campaign-trail comments. This knowledge also maintains continuity in U.S. national security affairs from one administration to the next.
OBAMA'S ADVISERS
Obama has put together a national security advisory group that includes officials from the Clinton administration and advisers to Senator Hillary Clinton, Obama's chief opponent in the Democratic primaries. Key advisers include:
• Former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher;
• Former Defense Secretary William Perry;
• Gregory Craig, former director of the State Department's Office of Policy Planning;
• Former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Lee Hamilton;
• Former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder;
• Former National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, and former Deputy National Security Adviser James Steinberg;
• Former Senators David Boren, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sam Nunn; and
• Former U.S. Representative Tim Roemer.
MCCAIN'S ADVISERS
McCain sought out mainstream Republicans to serve as his foreign policy and national security affairs advisers. Ron Scheunemann was the foreign policy coordinator for the first McCain presidential campaign in 2000 and is filling that role again. He has extensive experience as a Republican legislative staff adviser on foreign policy issues including NATO enlargement, U.N. reform and ballistic missile defense.
Other key McCain advisers include:
• Robert Kagan, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who served on the State Department's Policy Planning staff in the Reagan administration;
• Stephen Biegun, vice president for international affairs at the Ford Motor Company and a former secretary to the National Security Council in the current Bush administration;
• Richard Williamson, who held senior foreign policy posts under President Reagan and in both Bush administrations;
• Peter Rodman, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served in foreign policy posts in five Republican administrations.
McCain also has been advised by former CIA Director James Woolsey on national security and energy issues.
In addition, crossing several generations of Republican advisers, McCain also is advised by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
FIRST STEPS IN A NEW ADMINISTRATION
Obama or McCain will follow the same process in forming his new administration.
The newly elected president will nominate secretaries of state and defense and select a national security adviser to make up the "battle Cabinet," which advises presidents during crises.
Also advising the new president will be an entirely new National Security Council. The president-elect will chose his nominees in the days between the November election and his January 2009 inauguration.
The U.S. Senate, which must endorse the appointment, typically acts swiftly to confirm key Cabinet nominees.
| 
News & Polls