Obama Transition: How Much Change in War Strategy?

Yochi J. Dreazen reports on the transition. President-elect Barack Obama’s picks on his transition team for defense suggest that the new administration will handle Iraq and Afghanistan differently from the Bush administration — but will stop well short of a complete restructuring of American military strategy in the two war zones. The co-lead of the defense transition team is Michele Flournoy , a Clinton-era Pentagon official who now runs the Center for a New American Security, a centrist think-tank that is likely to contribute a disproportionate amount of the new administration’s national security appointees. Flournoy is likely to be offered a high-ranking position at the Pentagon, and some Obama advisers say she could eventually be tapped as the nation’s first female defense secretary. While at CNAS, Flournoy helped to write a report that called for reducing the open-ended American military commitment in Iraq and replacing it with a policy of “conditional engagement” there. ... (link)