The New York Times offers this profile of the new foreign policy team:

As President-elect Barack Obama introduces his national security team on Monday, it includes two veteran cold warriors and a political rival whose records are all more hawkish than that of the new president who will face them in the White House Situation Room. Yet all three of his choices ‚ Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the rival turned secretary of state; Gen. James L. Jones, the former NATO commander, as national security adviser, and Robert M. Gates, the current and future defense secretary ‚ have embraced a sweeping shift of priorities and resources in the national security arena. The shift would create a greatly expanded corps of diplomats and aid workers that, in the vision of the incoming Obama administration, would be engaged in projects around the world aimed at preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states.

The article goes on to anticipate major shifts in U.S. foreign policy and then questions where the money will come from to finance this change in direction. With the financial crisis continuing to drain national resources one wonders if the sunny optimism of the Obama inauguration will be enough to reset budget priorities and allow for the change people are expecting in this area.