Outside the Beltway

Mitt Romney’s National Security Team

Ahead of his big foreign policy speech, Mitt Romney has unveiled his "Foreign Policy and National Security Advisory Team" which "will assist Governor Romney as he presents his vision for restoring American leadership in the world and securing our enduring interests and ideals abroad."

James Joyner · Thursday, October 6, 2011 · 5 comments

Ahead of his big foreign policy speech, Mitt Romney has unveiled his “Foreign Policy and National Security Advisory Team” which “will assist Governor Romney as he presents his vision for restoring American leadership in the world and securing our enduring interests and ideals abroad.”

It’s an impressive and diverse group. And I rather like the tacit admission that Romney is still developing a foreign policy vision. Like it or not, few presidential candidates come to the table with much experience in that arena.

His Special Advisors, as he describes them:

Cofer Black —  Vice President of Blackbird Technologies; Director of the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center (1999-2002); United States Department of State Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism (2002-2004)

Christopher Burnham — Vice Chairman of Deutsche Bank Asset Management; United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Management (2005-2006); United States Under Secretary of State for Management (2001-2005)

Michael Chertoff — Chairman of the Chertoff Group; United States Secretary of Homeland Security (2005-2009); Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (2003-2005)

Eliot Cohen — Director of the Strategic Studies Program at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Counselor to the United States Department of State (2007-2009); Defense Policy Advisory Board Member (2001-2009)

Norm Coleman — Chairman of the Board, American Action Network; Adviser to the Republican Jewish Coalition; United States Senator (R-MN) (2003-2009)

John Danilovich — Member of the Trilantic European Advisory Council; CEO of Millennium Challenge Corporation (2005-2009); Ambassador to Brazil (2004-2005); Ambassador to Costa Rica (2001-2004)

Paula Dobriansky — Senior Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs (2001-2009)

Eric Edelman — Visiting Scholar at School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University; Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (2005-2009); Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (2001-2003)

Michael Hayden — Principal of the Chertoff Group; Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2006-2009); Director of the National Security Agency (1999-2005)

Kerry Healey — President, Friends of the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan; Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (2003-2007); Trustee, American University of Afghanistan

Kim Holmes — Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation; Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (2001-2005)

Robert Joseph  — Senior Scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy; Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (2005-2007)

Robert Kagan — Syndicated Columnist; Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in the Center on United States and Europe; Board Member of the Foreign Policy Initiative

John Lehman — Chairman and Founding Partner, J. F. Lehman & Co.; National Security Advisory Counsel for the Center for Security Policy; Secretary of the Navy (1981-1987); Member of the 9/11 Commission

Walid Phares — Professor of Global Strategies at the National Defense University in Washington; Member of the Advisory Board of the Task Force on Future Terrorism at the Department of Homeland Security (2006-2007)

Pierre Prosper — Partner at Arent Fox; United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (2001-2005); Special Counsel and Policy Adviser to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (1999-2001)

Mitchell Reiss — President of Washington College; Director of Policy Planning at State Department (2001-2005); Special Envoy for Northern Ireland (2005-2007)

Daniel Senor — Partner at Rosemont Capital; Coalition Provisional Authority Spokesman and Senior Advisor (2003-2004); Director and Co-Founder, Foreign Policy Initiative

Jim Talent — Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation; United States Senator (R-MO) (2002-2007)

Vin Weber — Managing Partner, Clark & Weinstock; Member of the United States House of Representatives (R-MN) (1981-1993)

Richard Williamson — Partner at Winston & Strawn; United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (2004); Special Envoy to Sudan (2008-2009); Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (1988-1989)

Dov Zakheim — Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) (2001-2004); Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Planning and Resources (1985-1987)

Not shockingly, this group is very heavy with people who served in the George W. Bush administration. That’s rather inevitable, given that the previous Republican administration left office in January 1993–almost twenty years ago now. Black is somewhat controversial, in that he served as a vice chairman at Blackwater. Somewhat surprising, although not necessarily problematic, is that there are a number of noted neoconservatives in the mix, notably Cohen, Kagan, Phares, and Senor.

In addition to the above special advisors, Romney announced the creation of several regional and functional working groups.

AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN

• James Shinn, Co-Chair - Lecturer at Princeton University; Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs (2007-2008)

• Ashley Tellis, Co-Chair - Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Senior Adviser to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs (2003)

AFRICA

Tibor Nagy, Chair - Vice Provost for International Affairs at Texas Tech University; Ambassador to Ethiopia (1999-2002); Ambassador to Guinea (1996-1999)

ASIA-PACIFIC

• Evan Feigenbaum, Co-Chair - Executive Director of the Paulson Institute; Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia (2006-2009); Member for East Asia, Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff (2001-2006)

• Aaron Friedberg, Co-Chair - Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University; Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs and Director of Policy Planning, Office of the Vice President (2003-2005)

• Kent Lucken, Co-Chair - Director at Citigroup Private Bank in Boston; Former Foreign Service Officer; Board Member for the US-Asia Institute

COUNTER-PROLIFERATION

• Eric Edelman, Co-Chair - Visiting Scholar at School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University; Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (2005-2009); Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (2001-2003)

• Robert Joseph, Co-Chair - Senior Scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy; Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (2005-2007)

• Stephen Rademaker, Co-Chair - Principal at Podesta Group; Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation (2002-2006); Policy Director for National Security Affairs and Senior Counsel to Senator Bill Frist (2006-2007)

COUNTERTERRORISM & INTELLIGENCE

• Michael Chertoff, Co-Chair - Chairman of the Chertoff Group; Secretary of Homeland Security (2005-2009); Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (2003-2005)

• Michael Hayden, Co-Chair - Principal of the Chertoff Group; Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2006-2009); Director of the National Security Agency (1999-2005)

DEFENSE

• John Lehman, Co-Chair - Chairman and Founding Partner, J.F. Lehman & Co.; National Security Advisory Council for the Center for Security Policy; Secretary of the Navy (1981-1987); Member of the 9/11 Commission

• Roger Zakheim, Co-Chair - Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (2008-2009)

EUROPE

• Nile Gardiner, Co-Chair - Director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom; Foreign Policy Researcher for British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (2000-2002)

• Kristen Silverberg, Co-Chair - Chief Operating Officer at Vorbeck Materials; Ambassador to the European Union (2008-2009); Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (2005-2008)

HUMAN RIGHTS

• Pierre Prosper, Chair - Partner at Arent Fox; United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (2001-2005); Special Counsel and Policy Adviser to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (1999-2001)

INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE

• Grant Aldonas, Co-Chair - Senior Adviser at Center for Strategic and International Studies; Under Secretary for International Trade at the Commerce Department (2001-2005); Member of the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (2001-2005)

• Daniel Runde, Co-Chair - Director of Prosperity and Development at Center for Strategic and International Studies; Former Director of the Office of Global Development Alliances at USAID (2005-2007); Head of Philanthropy Relations at the International Finance Corporation (2007-2010)

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

• Christopher Burnham, Co-Chair - Vice Chairman Deutsche Bank Asset Management; United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Management (2005-2006); United States Under Secretary of State for Management (2001-2005)

• Paula Dobriansky, Co-Chair - Senior Fellow at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government; Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs (2001-2009)

• Robert O’Brien, Co-Chair - Partner at Arent Fox; US Alternate Representative to the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly (2005-2006); Former legal officer with the United Nations Security Council (Compensation Commission) (2006-2008)

LATIN AMERICA

• Clifford Sobel, Co-Chair - Ambassador to Brazil (2006-2009); Ambassador to the Netherlands (2001-2005); Member United States Holocaust Memorial Council (1994-1998)

• Ray Walser, Co-Chair - Senior Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation; Director of the Foreign Service Institute’s Western Hemisphere Area Studies program (2005-2007); 27-year Foreign Service Officer

MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA

• Mary Beth Long, Co-Chair - Senior Vice President at Neural IQ Government Services; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (2007-2009)

• Meghan O’Sullivan, Co-Chair - Lecturer at Kennedy School of Government; Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan (2004-2007)

• Walid Phares, Co-Chair - Professor of Global Strategies at the National Defense University in Washington; Member of the Advisory Board of the Task Force on Future Terrorism at the Department of Homeland Security (2006-2007)

RUSSIA

• Leon Aron, Co-Chair - Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute; Author of Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life and other noted works; Contributed to The New Russian Foreign Policy

• William Martel, Co-Chair    -   Associate Professor of International Security Studies at the Fletcher School, Tufts University

I’m only familiar with maybe half of these people, who are drawn more from the academic and think think world than from the ranks of former major policymakers. I’m a fan of Hayden and Gardiner.