Gates: Pragmatic, cautious player

Soft-spoken but tough, Gates, 63, is in many ways the antithesis of Donald H Rumsfeld, the brash leader he would replace. He has been privately critical of the administration8217;s failure to execute its military and political plans for Iraq, and he has spent the last six months quietly debating new approaches to the war, as a member of the Iraq Study Group run by James A Baker III and Lee H Hamilton.

It was under Bush8217;s father that Gates first rose to influence, as deputy national security adviser and then director of central intelligence. He was not part of the group that advised the current President Bush during his 2000 campaign, and he has publicly questioned the administration8217;s approach to Iran, saying in a 2004 report for the Council on Foreign Relations that its refusal to talk to the Tehran government was ultimately self-defeating.

8220;This is a signal that there will be a major effort to avoid confrontation on national security issues,8221; said Dov Zakheim, a former senior official in the Pentagon who left in 2004.

A hint of Gates8217; approach can be found in his remarks in 2004 at the release of the Council on Foreign Relations report, called 8220;Iran: Time for a New Approach8221;. 8220;One of our recommendations is that the US government lift its ban in terms of nongovernmental organisations being able to operate in Iran,8221; Gates said. 8220;Greater interaction between Iranians and the rest of the world,8221; he said, 8220;sets the stage for the kind of internal change that we all hope will happen there.8221;

8211;SCOTT SHANE