Editor’s note: We polled several friends of the Atlantic Council last week on the question What are the top foreign policy priorities for the next president?   We’ll be running their responses all week.

1.      Addressing the global financial crisis; he should appoint his economic team immediately and figure out a strategy for both injecting stability and confidence back into world markets and limiting the damage to the real economy.

2.      Work with other NATO members to develop a strategy for fighting the war in Afghanistan on a long-term basis and get the commitments to pursue that strategy consistently.

3.      Reach an understanding with General Petraeus about the timeline for withdrawing from Iraq and begin the diplomacy necessary to put together a U.S.-EU-U.N. conference on ensuring a stable and prosperous future for Iraq in the wider region.

4.      Announce that he will close Guantanamo within six months based on the recommendations of a bipartisan commission and ensure full compliance with the Geneva Conventions by all parts of the U.S. government.

5.      Announce an immediate review of U.S. climate change policy with the intention of figuring out how the United States can play an leading diplomatic and economic role in doing everything possible to avert what is possible to avert and mitigate what is not.

Anne-Marie Slaughter is Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.  Debate word cloud from Flickr user EricaJoy, used under Creative Commons license.