Who’s Advising Mitt Romney on Foreign Policy?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/whos-advising-mitt-romney-on-foreign-policy/

Sep 12, 2012 2:16pm

With Mitt Romney’s comments on Libya drawing attention today–specifically, his criticism of Obama–it’s worth examining whom Romney listens to on such matters.

Dan Senor is one of Romney’s closest advisers on foreign policy. Since Paul Ryan has been selected as the GOP’s vice presidential candidate, Senor has been traveling with Ryan–but today, he left the trail because of the “foreign policy developments” and is in Boston and NYC.

Senor is the former spokesman for the American government in Iraq (the Coalition Provisional Authority at the beginning of the Iraq war under George W. Bush) and is a particularly close adviser to Romney on the Middle East. (He has traveled with Romney to Israel three times, as well as written a book on Israel that Romney often cites). With Ryan, he consults on domestic and foreign policy issues.

Romney has long sought to distinguish himself from the president by drawing a contrast between weakness and strength, and his posture is reflected in the team he’s chosen, peppered with luminaries from the Bush administration. The “special advisers”–who do not comprise the entire foreign policy team–are listed on Romney’s campaign website:

Cofer Black
Christopher Burnham
Michael Chertoff
Eliot Cohen
Norm Coleman
John Danilovich
Paula J. Dobriansky
Eric Edelman
Michael Hayden
Kerry Healey
Kim Holmes
Robert Joseph
Robert Kagan
John Lehman
Andrew Natsios
Meghan O’Sullivan
Walid Phares
Pierre Prosper
Mitchell Reiss
Daniel Senor
Jim Talent
Vin Weber
Richard Williamson
Dov Zakheim