After putting the final touches on President Obama’s FY 2013 budget at the end of the month, OMB Director Jack Lew will take his significant budgetary, management, and diplomatic experiences to the West Wing as the new White House Chief of Staff, replacing Bill Daley.  Lew is a thoughtful leader on the International Affairs Budget, and a true champion of American engagement in the world.  USGLC issued a statement last night wishing him well in his new role.

Must Reads

Who’s in the News

Five things you should know about new White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew (Josh Rogin, The Cable)

President Barack Obama announced today that White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley will resign and be replaced by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director and former Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew. In his remarks today, Obama touted Lew’s experience on both domestic and foreign policy matters.

U.S. silent as Ortega assaults democracy (Marco Rubio, Miami Herald)

Senator Marco Rubio: In Nicaragua, a determined and autocratic President Daniel Ortega has weakened Nicaraguan institutions to extend his grip on power. He has manipulated elections, corrupted the courts and threatened opposition members with mob violence. Together, his efforts allowed him to illegally campaign for re-election, steal an election in November and made his inauguration on Tuesday possible.

Smart Power

21st Century Statecraft: State Breaks Diplomatic Ground with International Twitter Q&A (David Stegon, Fedscoop)

The State Department held its first Twitter Briefing on Friday as part of its 21^st Century Statecraft Month.  Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland took five questions from the department’s official feeds, all of them coming in foreign languages.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Obama Plans Panel to Watch China (Carol E. Lee and Sudeep Reddy, Wall Street Journal)

President Barack Obama plans to create a U.S. government task force designed to monitor China for possible trade and other commercial violations as part of a larger White House effort to get more assertive with Beijing this election year, people familiar with the matter said.

Daw Aung San Suu Kim confirms she will run for Parliament (Seth Mydans, New York Times)

Myanmar’s opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, confirmed on Tuesday that she will run for a seat in the country’s new Parliament in a by-election scheduled for April that will see her party, the National League for Democracy, enter the new political structure for the first time.

Sanctions begin taking a bigger toll on Iran (Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times)

The West’s campaign to punish Iran for its suspected nuclear weapons program has begun to inflict far more damage on Tehran’s economy in recent weeks, spurring a new phase of a dispute that carries acute risks as well as opportunities for the United States and its allies.