As the new Presidential team settles in, Military Families United has prepared briefing books for the media outlining the positions of the Obama National Security Team. With our troops in harm’s way, it is vital the media and the public learn about those who will guide our foreign policy during this challenging time. Visit the Transition page for more on General James Jones, James Steinberg, Richard Danzig, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Michele Flournoy, John Hamre, Wendy Sherman, and Tom Donilon.
James Steinberg
Deputy Secretary of State
James Steinberg, former Deputy National Security Advisor, is currently the Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. He has served as Director of Policy Planning at the State Department and as Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. He was also a policy advisor for Senator Ted Kennedy on the Armed Services Committee and a senior analyst at the RAND Corporation.
- Steinberg has been a strong advocate for regime change in Iraq since the Clinton Administration.
- Steinberg has been a supporter of building a national missile defense system.
- Steinberg has been an advocate for the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe.
Click here to read the full briefing.
Thomas Donilon
Deputy National Security Advisor
Thomas Donilon is currently a partner at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where he heads the firm’s Strategic Counseling Practice and serves on it’s governing committee. Prior to O’Melveny & Myers, he was the Executive Vice President for Law and Policy at Fannie Mae. He served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Chief of Staff at the State Department from 1993 to 1996, during the Clinton Administration. Mr. Donilon has a history of involvement in both legal and political capacities. He was senior counsel to the 1992 Clinton-Gore Transition team, led Clinton’s 1992 general election debate preparation, and managed the Democratic National Conventions of 1980 and 1984. He also served as a CBS News national political consultant, and aided President Carter in his transition out of the White House.
- "Donilon is no expert on foreign policy. But he is a voracious reader and fast learner who participates in all critical policy meetings. "He knows the substance well enough to handle policy questions," says one colleague, "and he's political enough to know how it will play.” Al Kamen, Washington Post, 01/23/1994
- Mr. Donilon has a close relationship with Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and has been active in national Democratic politics at the presidential level. He led President Elect Obama’s preparations for all three debates against John McCain.
- From 2000 and 2003, Mr. Donilon was given compensation of over 7 million dollars from Fannie Mae while working as the General Counsel and the Executive Vice President.
Click here to read the full briefing
General James Jones
National Security Advisor
General James Jones, formerly the Supreme Allied Commander for NATO, and Commandant of the U.S Marine Corps, is currently the Chairman of Atlantic Council. Throughout his forty year career he has served his country around the world, from Vietnam, Okinawa, Northern Iraq, and the Balkans. He was awarded a Silver Star, and a Bronze Star with a “V” device for valor in Vietnam. Since his retirement from the Marine Corps in February of 2007 he has been called upon to serve as a Special Envoy for Middle East Security at the State Department and as the Chairman of the Congressional Independent Commission on Security Forces in Iraq he was the primary author of the “Jones Report” delivered to Congress in September 2007.
- General Jones has been a strong advocate of victory in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
- General Jones has regularly warned of the dangerous role that Iran is playing the Middle East.
- General Jones has been warning of the growing narcotics problem in Afghanistan.
Click here to read the full briefing.
Richard Danzig
Richard Danzig, a former Secretary and Undersecretary of the Navy during the Clinton Administration, is a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, director of the Center for New American Security, and Senior Fellow at the Center for Naval Analyses. He has contributed to the Department of Homeland Security “Net Assessment” Panel on Bioterrorism, was a member of the U.S. Military Southern Command Advisory Board, and was chairman of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Danzig currently serves as a corporate Director the Human Genome Sciences, Inc., National Semiconductor Corporation, and Saffron Hill Ventures (a British venture capital firm).
- Richard Danzig has indicated his support for expanding the size of the military.
- Richard Danzig has said that an expanded American presence in Afghanistan is a priority.
- Richard Danzig has stated that the Bush Administration has “followed the right course” in dealing with Iran.
Click here to read the full briefing.
Michèle A. Flournoy
Under Secretary of Defense
Michèle A. Flournoy is co-leading President-Elect Obama’s Department of Defense Transition team and is considered to be in the running for a senior policy position at the Department. She is the Co-Founder and President of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), was a former Senior Associate at the International Security Program of the Center for Strategic International Studies, and formerly a distinguished research professor at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University (NDU), where she founded and led the University’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) working group. Prior to that she was appointed by the Clinton Administration as both Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Threat Reduction and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy.
- Ms. Flournoy indicated in 2001 that she believed that Iraq was a rogue state, but has also condemned the war in Iraq as a distraction from the war on terror.
- Ms. Flournoy has advocated for a decrease in troops and a policy of conditional engagement in Iraq and the Middle East.
- Ms. Flournoy has said that she “personally support(s) the deployment of a limited defense to deal with the threat of missiles from rogue states.”
Click here to read the full briefing.
Susan Rice
Ambassador to the United Nations
Susan Rice, former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs, is currently a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She served as a national security advisor to the Kerry and Dean campaigns in 2004. Rice began her government career in 1993 as the Director of International Organizations and Peacekeeping at the National Security Council and then as the Senior Director for African Affairs. She is a member of Council on Foreign Relations, a director of the Partnership for Public Service and the National Democratic Institute.
- Rice has been an expert on African affairs and has been very forceful on the need for military intervention in Darfur.
- Rice has changed her position on Iraq from “staying the course” to “the situation being too far gone” to “imperative we succeed” to “victory is no longer achievable” in 2004.
- Rice has stated that President Bush defined the global nature of the terrorist threat well that we face and that the United States must pursue terrorists where ever they can be found.
Click here to read the full briefing.
John Hamre
John Hamre is President and CEO for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and serves on the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry. He also serves as chairman of the Defense Policy Board. Prior to working at CSIS, he served as the 26th U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, after serving as undersecretary of defense (Comptroller) from 1993 to 1997. As comptroller, he was the Principal Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for the preparation, presentation, and execution of the defense budget and management improvement programs.
- Hamre has testified that he believes that while we will be in Iraq for a while “we’ve got to get it right.”
- Hamre has said the surge has contributed to a more stable and secure environment.
- Hamre has said that neither McCain or Obama appreciated the significance of the Russian invasion of Georgia.
Click here to read the full briefing.
Wendy Sherman
Wendy Sherman is a Principal of The Albright Group LLC and of Albright Capital Management LLC, with 25 years of experience in both public and private sector executive-level management. Ambassador Sherman served as Counselor and Chief troubleshooter for the State Department, as well as Special Advisor to President Clinton, Policy Coordinator on North Korea, and Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs. Sherman is recognized for her knowledge on national security issues and serves as a frequent analyst in major news outlets. She was recently appointed by Congressional Leadership to serve on the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.
- Sherman believes that the United States invading Afghanistan was justified, but invading Iraq was not.
- Sherman believes the United States should leave Iraq as soon as the country is stable.
- Sherman has indicated that success in Iraq could encourage North Korea to have nuclear weapons to deter us.
Click here to read the full briefing.
Samantha Power
Samantha Power is an Irish American academic, journalist, writer and Pulitzer Prize winner. She was named one of the top 100 scientists and thinkers of 2004 by Time magazine. She served as a foreign policy fellow in Barack Obama’s office from 2005-2006, and as Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign senior foreign policy adviser until reported as referring to Hillary Clinton as a “monster,” when she was forced to resign. There is also speculation that her resignation was related to her “slip,” saying that Obama’s 16-month troop withdraw from Iraq plan was not set in stone.
- Powers believes that Iraq has been lost, and that the United States is “the cause of all the harms in Iraq.”
- Powers has indicated that the UN Security Council has lost credibility not only because the United States has ignored it, but also because two human rights abusers sit on the Council (Russia and China) and because the anachronistic presence of two of the World War Two victors (France and Great Britain).
- Powers as indicated that Obama believes in “doubling down” in Afghanistan.
Click here to read the full briefing.
Jeh Johnson
Jeh Charles Johnson was appointed by President Obama to be General Counsel to the Defense Department. During Obama’s campaign Johnson served as a foreign policy advisor and as a member of the national finance committee. Johnson is an American civil and criminal trial lawyer who has dealt with a variety of complicated and high-profile civil and criminal cases and arbitrations for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. He has returned to Paul, Weiss multiple times after leaving to serve as General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force under Clinton, as an Assistant United States Attorney (in Southern District of NY), an as a fundraiser and special counsel to John Kerry’s 2004 campaign, also representing Kerry concerning his war record.
- Johnson has indicated in his testimony that in regard to the Guantanamo Bay detainees he does “have some predispositions on this subject which I think are similar to the president-elect's. I think that it is preferable that we proceed in Article 3 civilian courts.”
- Powers as indicated that Obama believes in “doubling down” in Afghanistan.
- Johnson has also indicated that this predisposition does not rule out the possibility of “some form of UCMJ court martial or a properly constituted military commission.”
Click here to read the full briefing.
