• Senior Advisor : Jared Kushner (Trump’s son in law)
• Senior Advisor to the President: Stephen Miller (Trump loyalist and Head of the Economic Policy Team. Currently National Policy Director for the Trump transition. Stephen Miller is a Jeff Sessions Aide who was a member of Donald Trump’s campaign and transition team. He has also been picked to write the inaugural address.
• Senior Counselor to the President & White House Strategist: Steve Bannon (Former Executive Chair of Breitbart News Website)

Source: EFCR (June 2016)

Edited

MEPs will elect their President on 17 January after the departure of Martin Schulz, who is stepping down to return to German politics. The new President will serve until European elections in 2019.

Candidates

Twitter is changing how diplomats interact and influencing how we see global leaders. From embarrassing tweets and international spats, the public is getting to see a different side of diplomacy. For politicians, Twitter has become a very powerful channel to broadcast messages. It has become an indispensable channel for digital diplomacy. More than two-thirds of heads of state and government in the world are on Twitter. Twitter isn't just about posting statements and updates. It allows global leaders to connect with their peers.

Tuesday, Jan.10

Position: Attorney General

• Nominee: Senator Jeff Sessions
• Background: Alabama Republican Congressman
• Committee: Senate Judiciary
• Confirmation Hearings: Jan.10 and 11.

Position: Homeland Security Secretary

The United States has 170 embassies and 11 missions other than an Embassy headed by a chief of mission (OSCE, UNVIE, USOAS, USOECD, USEU, USUN, USNATO, USUN Geneva, USAU, ASEAN, and US Mission to Somalia). About 30 percent of these posts are encumbered by political/noncareer appointees (about 50 ambassadors), while the remaining 70 percent are filled by career diplomats.

Author : Michael McFaul, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Professor of Political Science, and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He was Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council (2009-2012), and later U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).

Text has been edited

Authors: Graham T. Allison, Director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and Plans; Dimitri K. Simes, Publisher and CEO of the National Interest, President of the Center for the National Interest

Original Text has been edited

Platine (Platinum) 41

A shift is coming to the European order: toward accommodating, rather than countering Russia. Since the end of World War II, European leaders have maintained their ever-growing alliance as a bulwark against Russian power. Through decades of ups and downs in Russian-European relations, in periods of estrangement or reconciliation, their balance of power has kept the continent stable.