TRANSITION | Forming the next government
05 November 2008
Work Begins Immediately for Next U.S. President and His Team
Major economic, foreign policy challenges await the Obama administration
Washington — Barack Obama will not take the oath of office until January 20, 2009, but work to address the many challenges that await him in the presidency begins immediately.
As campaign staffs across the country clean out their offices, a transition team begins its work to ensure the Obama administration is ready to handle the major foreign policy and economic challenges facing the United States.
The transition team, which will include experts on every major policy issue, will begin preparing policy recommendations for the president-elect and help him select Cabinet members. These Cabinet appointments are subject to confirmation by the new Congress after Obama is sworn in.
The transition team will receive help from the White House. The peaceful transfer of power from one presidential administration to the next is a hallmark of American democracy, and the Bush administration is committed to assisting with that transfer. (See “Ensuring A Smooth and Effective Presidential Transition.”)
Transition planning began months ago. Federal agencies and White House offices have prepared briefings on significant pending policy issues for the president-elect’s transition team.
Both presidential candidates were briefed regularly on national security issues, and Obama will be kept continuously informed as he prepares to take office.
FOREIGN POLICY CHALLENGES
When Obama becomes president on January 20, 2009, he will become commander in chief of U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The wars were a major topic on the campaign trail, and both candidates supported increasing troop levels in Afghanistan. They differed on Iraq.
Obama has criticized the Iraq war since its beginning and has pledged to begin withdrawing troops as soon as he is inaugurated, with a goal of having most troops out of the country within 16 months.
Along with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama administration will have to address Iran’s drive for nuclear capabilities, Steven Cook, senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, told journalists at the State Department’s Foreign Press Center October 29.
The new administration also must decide “whether or not it is worth the president’s time and effort to engage diplomatically on the Arab-Israeli front, given all the other issues that are confronting the president,” he said.
“The Middle East has been a central focus of the Bush administration’s foreign policy and it’s likely to be a central focus for the next administration,” Cook said.
Throughout his campaign, Obama called for a multilateral approach to foreign policy in which the United States would engage more deeply and more frequently with its allies. American University professor Allan Lichtman told journalists at the State Department’s Foreign Press Center November 3 that he expects the Obama administration will follow through on that pledge.
One potential area for increased cooperation is climate change. “I would expect Barack Obama to reopen negotiations with the [European Union] and other nations, including Russia and China, on the problem of global climate change,” Lichtman said.
Political experts caution that external factors often shape a president’s foreign policy. “You never know based on a campaign exactly how a president is going to conduct foreign affairs,” Lichtman said.
ECONOMIC CONCERNS
After a campaign dominated by economic issues, most Americans expect the economy will be Obama’s top concern when he takes office.
“The next president of the United States is going to face an enormous fiscal crisis here at home,” Lichtman said, adding that the next administration “will be facing deficits of unprecedented proportions.”
“The next president is going to have to make some very hard choices on priorities,” he said.
Throughout his campaign, Obama pledged to lower taxes for those earning $250,000 a year or less and to provide new options for affordable health care. But such measures can come into force only if the next Congress passes new legislation.
Because the current economic challenges are global rather than national, addressing them will have a foreign policy dimension.
The next president “is not going to be able to afford” to pay less attention to foreign policy, Cook said, because “we know this financial crisis is not just limited to the United States. This is a global issue and requires a global solution.”
