Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power

Kurt M. Campbell is CEO and cofounder of the Center for a New American Security. He served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific in the Clinton administration. Before that, he taught at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and served in the Navy. His books include Climatic Cataclysm: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Climate Change (Brookings, 2008) and Hard Power:The New Politics of National Security, written with Michael O'Hanlon (Basic Books, 2006). James B. Steinberg is dean of the LBJ School of Government at the University of Texas-Austin. A former director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, he was deputy national security adviser to President Clinton from 1996 to 2000. He previously served as director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff and as deputy assistant secretary of state, with responsibility for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. His books include Protecting the Homeland 2006/2007, written with Michael d'Arcy, Michael O'Hanlon, Peter Orszag, and Jeremy Shapiro (Brookings, 2006).