Pentagon to provide 'nonprescriptive' transition guide

Defense Department officials have prepared a "nonprescriptive" guidebook on military policy to hand over to the incoming administration, a senior Pentagon official said Thursday. Eric Edelman, the undersecretary of Defense for policy, said senior officials have drafted a transition book that includes a timeline for the first 90 days of the new administration, as well as other information on the state of play of military issues. But it lacks any specific guidance on how incoming Pentagon officials should proceed in the next administration.

"In past transitions, I've seen a lot folks ... try to say, 'Look, here's the policy and here's why you should keep it,' " Edelman said. "I think we've tried to be nonprescriptive." He added: "Obviously, they're all very smart ... and very experienced folks and they'll figure out what they're going to do."

Edelman, who served in the Pentagon from 1990 to 1993, said the Pentagon's transition efforts are "light years" ahead of where they were following the 1992 election. Defense Secretary Robert Gates "is very committed to making this a smooth and useful transition," Edelman said.

He added that officials have tried to keep the guidebook as succinct as possible. Edelman would not elaborate on what the outline for the first 90 days would include, saying only that he would prefer senior officials discuss it first with President-elect Obama's transition team.

On Wednesday, Obama's transition team announced that Michele Flournoy and John White, both veterans of the Clinton-era Pentagon, will lead the Defense Department transition effort. Edelman did say that a big challenge the next administration will face is how to manage defense budgets in a fiscally constrained environment caused by "the unknown sum of money it will take to deal with economic issues."

Unlike many other political appointees in the Pentagon, Edelman, a veteran of every transition since 1981, said he plans to leave his post on Inauguration Day. But he added that Gates has canvassed Bush administration appointees to determine who would be willing to stay in their jobs through the transition period -- the first wartime switchover in 40 years. A "very high percentage of people" have said they would stay on, if asked, Edelman said.

"That's very encouraging," he added. "Now it's up to the new team to decide whether they want people to stay or whether they want to come in with their own team, which is completely understandable."