Obama's Key Foreign Policy Advisers—PICTURES

Joe Biden: A former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, the vice president is a top foreign-policy adviser and the last person in the room offering Obama his views. Biden’s penchant for blurting whatever is on his mind periodically gets him “a little bit over his skis,” as Obama has remarked. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

Hillary Rodham Clinton: The tireless secretary of State has given new meaning to “shuttle diplomacy.” She has also become a star on the diplomatic circuit, admired for toughness and compassion. Clinton does not plan to stay for a second Obama term. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Leon Panetta: The unflappable Panetta is credited for calming the CIA left roiling by Obama’s release of the “torture memos” and for managing the successful hunt for Osama bin Laden. As Defense secretary, he has assumed responsibility for winding down the Afghanistan war and downsizing the military. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Tom Donilon: This longtime Democratic operative succeeded Gen. James Jones as national-security adviser. A behind-the-scenes operator, he gets credit for orchestrating the White House response to the Arab Spring revolutions and the raid that killed bin Laden. (Richard A. Bloom)