President Obama has appointed Susan Rice as National Security Adviser.
At the end of 2012, Susan Rice was forced to withdraw her candidacy for Secretary of State in the face Republican lawmakers’ rabid accusations that she was hiding the truth about the assassination of the U.S. ambassador to Libya. In the end, the position of national security adviser is not subject to the approval of the Senate.
Russia too had indicated that she would not take kindly to a Rice DOS appointment.

She will be assisted by Tony Blinken.

Samantha Power succeeds Susan Rice as UN ambassador.

All this gives smacks of amateurishness:
– Susan Rice was chosen because of her personal relations with the president. Previously a public relations consultant, she has repeatedly conflated the interests of her former clients with the requirements of her position at the United Nations.
– Samantha Power has treaded a different political path. A genocide specialist, she comes across as naïve, oblivious to the role of the United States in the world.

Unlike John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, Susan Rice and Samantha Power are in favor of a U.S. military intervention in Syria.