With changes taking place in the CIA, the Pentagon, and in key overseas posts, Donilon, who has been national security adviser for six months after two years as No. 2, is expected to see his sway over U.S. foreign policy-making grow. But his influence differs from that of many of his predecessors.
Where some past national security advisers - Henry A. Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, for example - were grand strategists, Donilon is a master of process, enforcing order and structure for a president who deeply values both.
"He's very devoted to a rigorous process," said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser. "When things are chaotic in the world, the first thing he'll do is set up a process."
Donilon's rise to one of the most powerful posts in the government reflects Obama's wish to maintain personal control over foreign strategy. Rather than rely on architects with a worldview worked out through years of study and research, Obama wants a national security adviser who will execute the president's vision, someone willing to wheedle and prod the foreign policy machinery to carry out Obama's goals.
Though a top White House official, Donilon is virtually unknown to the public. He insists on preparing so carefully for press interviews that he can't afford to do very many of them. He typically avoids the Sunday talk shows.
Obama seems to share his penchant for logic and order. Both are trained as lawyers, and their minds work in similar ways. A couple of times a year, Obama gives Donilon a handwritten list of goals, from nuclear weapons containment to progress in Afghanistan. Obama breaks down his outline into points and "sub-points," Donilon said.
