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Bloat and leaks...

Good article:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/31/robert-obrien-cuts-national-security-council-staff/

NSC chief slashing Obama’s ‘bloated’ staff to create efficient, tight-lipped White House operation

December 31, 2019
The White House National Security Council staff is being downsized sharply in a bid to improve efficiency within the policy coordinating body by consolidating positions and cutting staff.

A second, unspoken thrust of the overhaul is a hoped-for end to what many critics see as a string of politically damaging, unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information. Leaks of President Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders and other damaging disclosures likely originated with anti-Trump officials in the White House who stayed over from the Obama administration, according to several current and former White House officials.

White House National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien is leading the NSC reform effort. He revealed in a recent interview with The Washington Times that 40 to 45 NSC staff officials were sent back in recent months to the agencies where they originally worked, with more likely to be moved out.

“We remain on track to meeting the right-sizing goal Ambassador O’Brien outlined in October, and in fact may exceed that target by drawing down even more positions,” said NSC spokesman John Ullyot.

Under President Obama, the NSC staff mushroomed to as many as 450 people. Mr. O’Brien plans to cut the staff to fewer than 120 policy officials by early next year.

(snip)

https://www.state.gov/biographies/andrew-peek/

(Peek’s background)

From your link (Peek’s background)....

Andrew L. Peek is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Prior to joining the State Department, he was a Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas while finishing his Ph.D. in international relations under Dr. Eliot Cohen at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His writing has been published in Foreign Affairs and The Wall Street Journal, among other outlets, and he has appeared regularly to discuss foreign policy issues on television.

Before entering academia, Peek served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer. General David Petraeus requested him personally for his Commanders’ Initiatives Group in Afghanistan, where he served as the strategic advisor on intelligence and special operations issues for General John Allen, Petraeus’s successor. In that role he was Gen. Allen’s personal advisor for direct action, foreign internal defense, intelligence, and Pakistani aspects of the war. He also advised on the commander’s meetings with foreign intelligence agencies, other national representatives, ministerial conferences at NATO, and interagency meetings with the White House. He subsequently served as a reservist with Joint Special Operations Command.

Prior to his service in Afghanistan, Peek served as the national security and foreign affairs advisor for two different U.S. Senators, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Mike Johanns of Nebraska. During the tenure of both, he developed a variety of bills and policy that were voted into law. These included the primary Iran sanctions bill of the 110th Congress, which served as the basis in the next Congress for the most significant sanctions law on Iran in 15 years.

Peek graduated from Princeton with High Honors in 2003 and received a Master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2005, where he served as a research assistant for Dr. Graham Allison’s U.S. Foreign Policy Course. He is a Life Member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a former Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.