I ask, Mike Allen answers. So long, Eric Edelman:

EXCLUSIVE: Secretary Gates’ deputy at the Pentagon is slated to be Richard Danzig, who was Navy secretary under President Clinton. The #3 (policy) will PROBABLY be Michelle Flournoy, a Clinton administration veteran who was dual-hatted as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction, and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy.

Not to be a stickler, but her name is Michele Flournoy, from the irregular-warfare-specializing think tank the Center for a New American Security and you can read all about her in these two pieces of mine from not-so-long ago. Long story short, if Flournoy indeed becomes undersecretary for policy — you can read about the importance of that job here — get ready to see, among other things, the interplay of the counterinsurgency and progressive communities as a hallmark of the Obama administration. This has large implications for both intellectual strains, and you could do worse than to check out these pieces for something of a primer, if I do say so myself.

Crossposted to The Streak.