Haass likely next CFR president. (Insider Report).

Richard Haass, head of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, is "the most likely choice" to replace Leslie Gelb as president of the Council on Foreign Relations, reported the December 18th Washington Times. Former head of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institute, Haass has also worked in the National Security Council and at the Pentagon.

Unnamed "foreign policy analysts" told the Times that Haass "has been unhappy in his position at the Department of State.... Haass has reportedly not been given the authority he would need to truly influence policymaking" in the Bush administration. Accordingly, he's apparently going over the president's head by seeking the presidency of the CFR, which Washington Post ombudsman Richard Harwood called the American "ruling establishment."

CFR sources told the Times that selecting Haass, a nominal Republican, would "balance the image that the organization has become too Wilsonian." Whatever selecting Haass might do for the CFR's image, his credentials as a Wilsonian are impeccable. Author of the book The Reluctant Sheriff, which calls for deeper U.S. involvement in UN-mandated military missions abroad, Haass also favors police-state measures to combat terrorism.

Following the 1996 Centennial Park bombing during the Atlanta Summer Olympics, Haass--at the time director of national security programs at the CFR--wrote an op-ed column warning that the ...