No Time for 'Nobody Home'

· The FBI and other agencies responsible for vetting appointees for security clearances should expedite the process for this slate, with the aim of having each official cleared by the time he or she is confirmed.

· The chairs and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the majority and minority leaders of the Senate should commit to expedited confirmation hearings for this slate, with the aim of having secretaries and deputy secretaries in place within a few days of the inauguration and undersecretaries and key assistant secretaries in place no later than the end of February.

· Departing administration officials with oversight responsibilities for Iraq, Afghanistan and other ongoing military operations should take pains to debrief their incoming counterparts to ensure smooth handoffs of operational oversight.

· The incoming administration should attempt to keep key national security personnel in place until their successors are confirmed.

Such an approach is essential to reducing the risks inherent in a wartime transition and to enabling the next president to grapple effectively with the most daunting national security inheritance in generations.

Richard Armitage was deputy secretary of state in the Bush administration. Michèle A. Flournoy is president and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security and former principal deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration.