“In the 21st century, the threats we face are at least as dangerous and in some ways more complex than those we’ve confronted in the past,” said Susan Rice, Obama’s top foreign policy adviser, in a speech at the New America Foundation on Aug. 15, “By definition they require cooperative solutions . . . while working with our allies and coming together in effective partnerships...”

...Already Obama initiatives have advanced the national security debate by giving policy experts the cover they need to advance those positions, argues Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation.

For example, Obama’s argument that Iraq was a distraction and that a redeployment of U.S. forces is needed has prompted military and strategic planners to move forward with the planning for that redeployment, Coll said.

”The ideas and framework of a prospective Obama presidency is already shaping the conduct of the American permanent national security bureaucracy,” said Coll. LINK