In an interview with TIME Diplomatic Correspondent Strobe Talbott last week, Richard Allen, the President-elect's appointee as National Security Adviser, made these points about the new Administration's foreign policy agenda and the role he expects to have in formulating it:
On Administration Goals: We have to build confidence among the allies, restore the vitality of our intelligence community and re-create the "margin of safety" [in arms] of which the President-elect spoke during the campaign. All of this has to be done as part of a long-range strategy that the American people can understand and support.
On Military Balance: The cushion of safety that...