Obama's Brain Trust

Lake, like Obama's other top advisers, is critical of the Iraq war. In a January 2007 Boston Globeop-ed, Lake wrote that the civilian leaders of the war effort have failed to understand that "you cannot fix another country's politics and resolve its internal fractures primarily through military means, coupled with floundering political, economic, and social programs that create as much dependency, corruption, and resentment as progress."

Lake has said the United States has a "fundamental strategic interest in NATO [North Alantic Treaty Organization] and an expanding NATO that can help bring stability farther and farther East in Europe."

Susan E. Rice, a Brookings Institution senior fellow for foreign policy, global economy, and development, served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the later years of the Clinton administration.

Rice has been a critic of the war in Iraq and she said in September 2007 that the troop surge is not achieving "its intended and stated objective of giving the Iraqi political factions the space that is necessary to resolve their political differences."

Rice has also advocated a tougher U.S. response to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. In 2007, Rice published a position paper calling for more stringent economic sanctions on Sudan and for Congress to authorize the use of force to end the crisis, among other recommendations. In 2005, Rice urged the United States and international groups like NATO and the African Union to "embrace an emerging international norm that recognizes the 'responsibility to protect' innocent civilians facing death on a mass scale and whose governments cannot or will not protect them."

Rice also categorizes global poverty as a factor in U.S. national security. In 2006, Rice warned in The National Interest that poverty "dramatically increases the risk of civil conflict" (PDF) and "prevents poor countries from devoting sufficient resources to detect and contain deadly disease." Rice has repeatedly said the Bush administration should devote up to 0.7 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, a target set as part of the UN's Millenium Development Project, to overseas development assistance by 2015.

Economic Advisers
In turbulent economic times, Obama has promoted an agenda including tax relief for the middle class, "fair trade" policies that protect workers' rights and the environment, and creation of new jobs in the energy sector. The following are his chief aides on international economic matters: