Do Obama's Globe-Trotters Matter?

When Barack Obama arrived at the White House about six months ago, some of his freshly-minted aides weren't sure how much time or energy the new president wanted to devote to foreign policy. Back then, the nation's economic crisis seemed all-consuming. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan demanded immediate attention, but so did the president's ambitious plans for healthcare and energy policy. That's one reason the new administration named a flock of special envoys to the Middle East, Afghanistan and other hot spots: to give the president extra time before he had to plunge in.

The appointment of so many heavy hitters instantly plunged Washington into one of its favorite pastimes: figuring out who's up and who's down. The cast of characters was irresistible. Not only was there Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of State, former Gen. James L. Jones as national security advisor and Robert M. Gates as secretary of Defense, but former Sen. George J. Mitchell as envoy to the Middle East, the omnivorous Richard C. Holbrooke as envoy to Afghanistan and strategist Dennis Ross as envoy-in-waiting to Iran. The gossip was so ubiquitous that even Obama joined in, joking that when Clinton slipped and broke her elbow, Holbrooke was seen nearby with a can of WD-40 lubricant.

So who's running the new administration's foreign policy? The answer turns out to be simple, clear and -- in retrospect -- obvious: Obama.

The new president didn't avoid foreign policy; instead, he piled more items on the agenda. He immersed himself in reviews of policy on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. He took advantage of his own novelty to announce a "reset" of U.S. relations with Russia, Europe and the Islamic world. And he launched a campaign for global nuclear disarmament, one of his long-running passions but not, strictly speaking, an immediate necessity.