As published for shadow.foreignpolicy.com on June 29, 2009:

I was wrong (and lots of people are adding, “again”). It turns out that Dennis Ross will not be taking up the strategic planning portfolio, as I had previously thought, but will instead take up the broader Middle East portfolio. The wiring diagram is not clear from afar (and may not even be clear from close up) but it looks like he will have a position more like a combination of the roles filled by Elliott Abrams, who covered everywhere the “Near East and North Africa” from Morocco to Iran (but not Iraq), plus Meghan O’Sullivan, who had Iraq and Afghanistan. He also has Pakistan, and so that gives him a remarkably broad regional portfolio that encompasses the two hot war military conflicts plus arguably the most urgent national security problem (Iran). It encompasses the portfolios of two formidable Special Envoys housed at State — George Mitchell (Israel-Palestine) and Richard Holbrooke (Af-Pak).

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