'Realist' Has Obama's Ear on Foreign Policy

Scowcroft, adviser to Bush I, will likely see protégés in key posts
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 24, 2008 9:26 AM CST
'Realist' Has Obama's Ear on Foreign Policy
Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser under the first President Bush, came into conflict with his son over the Iraq war, and has a deep relationship with Barack Obama on foreign policy.   (AP Photo)

Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to the first President Bush and shunned by the second over Iraq, is likely to exercise serious foreign-policy influence in Barack Obama’s administration, the Wall Street Journal reports. Scowcroft, known for a non-ideological foreign-policy philosophy, counts among his protégés a number of Obama allies and likely appointees, including Colin Powell and Robert Gates.

Obama talks with the 83-year-old former Air Force general regularly, and his plans to push early for an Israeli-Palestinian accord and negotiations with Iran echo Scowcroft’s advice. Arguing against the war in Iraq got him kicked off a foreign-policy advisory board by George W. Bush; Scowcroft says policies of “idealism and self-assertion” were, in the election, “rejected in favor of realism.” (More Brent Scowcroft stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X