What a big foreign policy team you have, Senator Kerry!

Readers of the blog are aware of my current dissatisfaction with George W. Bush’s management of the foreign policy apparatus — which means I’m taking a good hard look at Kerry. As someone who’s primarily interested in foreign affairs, a few questions come to mind — what are the foreign policy priorities of a President Kerry? How would Kerry manage the system? Who would be the key players in a Kerry administration? The answers to the first question can be found in this Sunday special by Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post (click here for Kerry’s audio interview with Kessler). I’ll comment on the substance of this in a later post. As to the latter two questions, Robin Wright provides some clues with a backgrounder in Sunday’s Washington Post. The key parts:

Since Kerry wrapped up the presidential nomination in March, however, many of the Democratic Party all-stars have signed on and are injecting new energy. Now in the midst of an 11-day blitz on foreign policy, Kerry is also being advised by former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright, former U.N. ambassadors Richard C. Holbrooke and Bill Richardson, former defense secretary William J. Perry, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, former NATO commander Gen. Wesley K. Clark, and Sen. Joseph R. Biden (Del.), ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee…. Unlike the Bush or Clinton campaigns, however, Kerry uses his foreign policy staff less for tutorials and positioning on foreign policy than as sounding boards to refine details, according to aides. As a Vietnam veteran and as a senator from Massachusetts, Kerry has been involved with the full range of foreign policy issues for decades. In conference calls during the day with an array of advisers or in one-on-one calls late at night, Kerry often uses his expanding team as sounding boards to provide feedback on his ideas. “He is his own best foreign policy adviser,” Berger said. “He feels very secure in what he knows and doesn’t feel compelled to show everyone how smart he is.” For now, the Kerry campaign’s primary foreign policy focus is on four issues: Iraq, the Middle East, terrorism and nonproliferation. To prepare a broader agenda, aides say the campaign will soon invite hundreds of foreign policy experts and academics to join about 20 teams to develop ideas and papers on countries, regions or transnational issues. (emphasis added)

On Kerry’s senior team, I have decidedly mixed feelings. I have the utmost respect for Holbrooke and Perry — but I’m not as confident about the rest of the group. See this David Adesnik analysis of Wesley Clark for one source of trepidation. As for Berger — well, any former National Security Advisor who writes on Democratic foreign policy should be able to beat out some lowly midwestern assistant professor of political science for the lead article position in Foreign Affairs. [Smart-ass-ed. Sorry — but do scroll down Kausfiles to see Mickey’s take on Berger’s ability to present a public face for Kerry.] Another thing — hundreds of foreign policy experts and academics? That would be impressive — I’m pretty sure the entire National Security Council staff is less than 200 people. Whether such a large campaign staff would accomplish anything is an unanswerable question. On the other hand, if the story is correct, it means two things: 1) Kerry takes foreign policy seriously. 2) There are an awful lot of foreign policy wonks who are Democrats (gasp!)