John McCain's foreign policy aide during his presidential campaign, Randy Scheunemann, is now advising McCain's running mate Sarah Palin and accompanied her on her recent trip to China.
Scheunemann, a former national security adviser for Sen. Trent Lott, has been a vocal critic of the Barack Obama administration, and recently called Obama's decision not to erect a missile shield in Eastern Europe a "concession" to Russia.
An early supporter of the Iraq war, he is prominent in the Republican Party's "hawkish, internationalist, neoconservative wing," Smith writes, "and his place beside Palin also offers a bit of a clue as to the direction in which her vaguely defined foreign policy views are likely to develop."