Thursday, October 6, 2011

Romney's Foreign Policy Team

While other candidates struggle to define who they are and speak in sound bites about Headlines without substance, Romney continues to add real structure to his Presidential resume. Case in point; an address today on Foreign Policy at the Citadel in Charlestown , S. Carolina while releasing the VERY substantive Foreign Policy team that will advise him . Take a look :

SPECIAL ADVISERS

Cofer Black.....VP Blackbird Technologies. Former Director of CIA Counter Terrorism
Chris Burnham...Former UN Undersecretary
Michael Chertoff... Former Secretary of Homeland Security
Eliot Cohen... Director of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins
Norm Coleman... Former Senator and adviser to GOP Jewish Coalition
John Danilovich... Triatlantic European Advisory Council
Paula Debriansky... Former Under Secretary of Stae for Global Affairs
Eric Edelman...Former Undersecretary of Defense
Michael Hayden...Former CIA Director
Kerry Healey
Kim Holmes...Former Assistant Sec. of State
Robert Joseph...Former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control
Robert Kagan... Brookings Institute
John Lehman... Former Secretary of the Navy
Walid Phares... Former Advisor to Dept of Homeland Security for Terrorism
Pierre Prosper... Former U.S. Ambassador at Large
Mitchell Reiss.. Former Director of Policy Planning at State Department
Dan Senor... U.S - Iraq Coalition Senior Advisor
Jim Talent...Former U.S Senator
Vin Weber... Former U.S Congressman
Richard Williamson...Former U.S Ambassador to the UN
Dov Zakheim... Former Undersecretary of Defense for Strategic and Intnl. Studies

In addition, Romney established specific chairs and teams for the following areas staffed by his foreign policy team as well as selected others:

AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN
AFRICA
ASIA PACIFIC
COUNTER PROLIFERATION
COUNTER TERRORISM AND INTELLIGENCE
DEFENSE
EUROPE
HUMAN RIGHTS
INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
LATIN AMERICA
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
RUSSIA

It will be fascinating to see if other candidates like Rick Perry and Herman Cain ever put together detailed plans on economics and foreign policy and staff them like this

CraigS


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12 comments:

Noelle said...

That is impressive. This is clearly the result of an immense amount of work. I can't imagine any other candidate, with the possible exception of Newt Gingrich, has put this kind of organization together, or even given it this kind of thought.

Cain, as much as I like him, is still trying to get up to speed on the various issues dealing with foreign policy.

Ohio JOE said...

For what it is worth, I only recognize 4 of the names of the list. Of those 4, 3 I have great respect for, 4th gentlemen that I recognize, I do not have strong feelings for one way or the other. Thus, I have to say that I am impressed overall. To be honest, FP is not a big issue for me like it was in past elections, but it is a bit comforting that at least the guys that I recognize our good guys.

GetReal said...

Nice to see you still commenting, OJ. Sorry about yesterday's bad news, but I see from another comment you made that you took it very well. I must say I'm impressed.

Ohio JOE said...

Good to see you GetReal. I guess one has to look at the glass as half full which is not easy these days. To be honest, I am not happy, but I do not feel sick or less American today compared to yesterday. If this had happened in the old country, I would feel sick, but at least for now, in America, there is still life after politics. One can survive on one's own merrit in America. I am sad that it will take America a long time to turn around again (in part because we have lost the heart for freedom and capitalism,) but there is still the desire for many of us to carry on.
Ironically, I did not take the news quite as bad as my fellow camp members because I was somewhat prepared for it and because one can only get heart-broken so many times in one's life.

Anonymous said...

does this mean that this list of people endorse or support romney? sorry if its a dumb question.

Ellie said...

Uh, They are on his team. They must support him otherwise they would not be on it.

And OJ. Time heals all wounds. We 08 rombots know it. There's always a silver lining: Our country will be so much better under President Romney.

Ohio JOE said...

"Our country will be so much better under President Romney." Better than Mr. Obama, yes, but there are still many better choices than Mr. Romney. I prefer to move towards capitalism in a quick a speedy manner. I do not prefer to move slowly like the Europeans. As Americans we should achieve our goal more quickly than the old way of doing things.

Anonymous said...

I think Romney will move as fast as possible because I do believe he sees the great damage that has been done to our country.

OJ, have you read Romney's book? I'm reading it now while I exercise (elliptical or bike....love to multitask!) I really understand where he's coming from and more the depth of his understanding. I am thinking those 16 grandchildren of his give him LOTS of drive to do the insane thing of running for POTUS! I think it's because of his experience, his understanding.....and for the future for his grandchildren and our grandchildren.

I am thrilled to see the staff AND the divisions of the team for deeper understanding of those areas!

ccr

Ohio JOE said...

"OJ, have you read Romney's book?" Most of the except from the book are good, but in the end, I am not happy with the outcome of his days as governor and I have a few other policy issues with him. Yes, he has done a lot of good in his life and he was a good businessman, but that did not translate into good governance.

It is heartening to see that he has good FP advisers, but he needs to have better economic advisers. Frankly, I was disappointed how he pandered to seniors during the SS debate. If he is going to have advisers like Get Real and Noelle advising him, that a Romney Presidency would be OK, but that does not appear to be the direction he is headed in.

CC said...

Romney needs so many advisors to make up for the fact that he doesn't have any foreign policy experience. The last thing we need is another POTUS learning foreign policy on the job. Go Huntsman!

Machtyn said...

TPF: Do you not think the experience Romney gained in the private sector at Bain, where he made national and multinational deals, and his experience with the SLC Olympics prepared him for foreign policy?

Granted, it is not political FP, per se... well, the Olympics has a lot of politics to it... but I wouldn't necessarily call it a weak point in Romney's hat. (I think Romney had a better FP platform than McCain did.)

In any case, I am glad for his strong team. No one person can do it alone.

Anonymous said...

This is who Romney is; an experienced leader who puts together teams of people, and then LISTENS to them BEFORE he makes decisions.

People say that Romney actually insists on having people who disagree with him on his team, or he will argue the other side himself to strengthen his decision making. Some people may not like this, but Lincoln actually appointed his rivals to his cabinet and worked with them in his efforts to keep the country together.

AZ