Assessing the Bush Foreign Policy Transition
Roundtable discussion, April 18, 2001
The National Security Council Project (Brookings Institution-University of Maryland)
The Transition to Governing Project (American Enterprise Institute)
Introduction
Norman Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute
and Thomas Mann, The Brookings Institution
Panelists
Ivo H. Daalder, The Brookings Institution
James M. Lindsay, The Brookings Institution
Robert C. "Bud" McFarlane, Former National Security Adviser
Carla Anne Robbins, Wall Street Journal
Introduction MR. ORNSTEIN: [in progress] of the Brookings Institution. We are co-directors of the Transition to Governing Project. You have some information about this, I think on your chairs. This is a project which we and our institutions have been conducting for the last couple of years and we will continue for a while in an attempt to improve the transition to governing, to get a focus on governing, we hope during the campaigns, to reduce the impact of the permanent campaign a bit and to make for a smoother movement from the time of an election, from the time of what's become a 36-day period of limbo, and then a transition itself.
We've done a number of sessions and other projects, and books, including, most recently, Preparing To Be President, the memoirs, or the memos, I should say, of Richard E. Neustadt, and The Permanent Campaign And Its Future.
We are going to have a session on presidential leadership next, coming up in mid May with David Gergen and Fred Greenstein, and there'll be others along the way. Stay tuned.
I'm going to introduce our panel. We were hoping to have, I should note, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense. He couldn't make it. He sent a little note, saying that he is very sorry—no—make that "very, very sorry" that he couldn't make it, and I sent him back a little note saying that that was fine, I would take that as an abject apology. [Laughter.]
MR. ORNSTEIN: Mr. Wolfowitz has been a member of the Board of Academic Advisors, here, at the Council of Academic Advisors, left behind some books, and he's not getting back those books, I should also note, till further notice. [Laughter.]
MR. ORNSTEIN: Let me introduce our panel and then turn things over to Tom.
Starting over at the far end, Ivo Daalder is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, has written many books, including, most recently,
Force, Order and Global Governance, which is forthcoming, along with
Winning Ugly: NATO's War To Save Kosovo. He served as a professor at the University of Maryland and as director for European Affairs in the National Security Council staff in 1995 and 1996.
Robert "Bud" McFarlane, is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Global Energy Investors. Previously, of course, a long and distinguished career in foreign policy, as a foreign policy adviser to Presidents Ford and Reagan, counselor to the State Department, deputy national security advisor, national security advisor, among many other very important positions.
Jim Lindsay is a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at The Brookings Institution, also a prolific author, including perspectives on global issues and perspectives of world politics, served as a professor at the University of Iowa, and director of Global Issues and Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council, 1996 to 1997, and also as a foreign affairs fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations.
And Carla Anne Robbins covers foreign policy for the Wall Street Journal as she has for some time, has worked as a foreign correspondent in Central and South America, covered the Gulf crisis from Saudi Arabia, is a political scientist and winner of numerous awards, including the top ones in journalism and foreign policy.
Now let me turn things over to Tom Mann.
MR. MANN: Thank you, Norman.
I'd like to add my welcome on behalf of the Transition to Governing Project, and the Brookings Institution. The idea of this event emerged from a conversation, several months ago, that I had with Ivo and Jim. They were asking me for all of the great studies in literature, on what outgoing presidents should do, and how they should act during the course of a presidential transition, and discovered that all of the writing was directed to the president-elect. So the question became what can we say about "lame duck" diplomacy. What are the appropriate lessons for outgoing presidents to internalize as far as the conduct of foreign policy during what is typically a, really a quite long transition period. This time, of course, it was cut in half. Jim and Ivo went on to write a piece called "Lame Duck Diplomacy" that will be coming out in the Washington Quarterly.
But, at the same time, they have been looking at a series of issues related to the foreign policy transition of new administrations, having to do with the organization of the State Department, the structure of the NSC, operation within the White House.
Now, if we add to that questions of staffing the new foreign policy and national security team, and the initial policy experience in the Bush administration, I think we have a full plate of topics to wrestle with this morning, and that really is our objective.
And our format will follow the format that we had for sessions before the election, anticipating governance and transition, which is more conservational and informal, rather than sort of long statements...(continues)
The Transition to Governing Project is an American Enterprise Institute project, in conjunction with the Brookings Institution and the Hoover Institution, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
More information about the Transition to Governing Project can be found on our website: www.aei.org/governing. Or contact the project at: The American Enterprise Institute, 1150 17th St., NW, Washington D.C. 20036. Phone: (202) 828-6038. Fax: (202) 862-5821. Email: governing@aei.org.
Note: The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the staff, officers or trustees of the Brookings Institution.