The shape of things to come

Okay, the new national security team is now officially unofficially leaked. We’ll have General James Jones as National Security Adviser with Tom Donilon as his Deputy. And Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, with James Steinberg as her deputy. And Robert Gates will stay on at the Pentagon. Susan Rice will become UN Ambassador. -Matthew Yglesias

UN Ambassador is a cushy job, but it is probably not what Rice wanted. She will be stuck in New York, far away from any important policy decisions. She was one of the most "left wing" serious foreign policy advisers for Barack Obama during the campaign and she has supported him from the start. That she is being kept away from the decision making process signals that Obama will not be very "liberal" in his foreign policy. That should not come as a shock to anyone who has listened to what he said during the campaign.

If you look at all the people on the list that will actually have a say in policy, I think it becomes clear that we will have a Scowcroft/Brzezinsky realist type of foreign policy.