Kerry is shaping his foreign policy

WASHINGTON — John F. Kerry is assembling a network of foreign policy advisers more hawkish than most Democrats but more skeptical of military solutions in the struggle against terrorism than the team surrounding President Bush.

The experts being consulted span a broad ideological range of Democratic opinion — to the point where some party thinkers worry that Kerry is not defining a sufficiently distinctive vision of how America should pursue its goals in the world.

But insiders believe those with the most influence on the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee tend to be advisors who support the forceful use of military power, including in Iraq, yet place a much higher priority than Bush and his team on maintaining support among allies.

Early speculation about who might serve as Kerry's secretary of State centers mostly on candidates who fit that description: Richard Holbrooke and Sandy Berger, former top officials in the Clinton administration; Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee; and more distantly, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., whose commitment to traditional alliances now place him much closer to the center of thinking in the Democratic than the Republican Party.

"I think the mantra of the Democratic thinkers is 'Together if possible, alone if absolutely necessary,' " said James P. Rubin, a former senior Clinton official who is joining the Kerry campaign as a top foreign policy adviser.

"That's a key difference between the Bush foreign policy and the Democratic foreign policy: Do you get enough benefit out of the (the argument for) international legitimacy and burden sharing in order to justify adjustments in tactics and timing in what you are trying to achieve? More often than not, (Democrats think) the answer is yes. Clearly in Iraq, the answer should have been yes."

The common assumptions among the Democrats advising Kerry contrast with the dominant views in the Bush team, not just on the value of alliances, but on many other fronts. One of the most important distinctions involves the risks America now faces.

While the Bush team tends to see the greatest danger in "rogue regimes" like the three nations the president identified in his "axis of evil," many Democrats place more emphasis on problems rooted in forces beyond the control of any state or government, such as the spread of militant Islamic ideology or the growth of al-Qaida.