MOA—I am not that optimistic. The Blob is resistant to change because those who are inside it tend to bite away anyone with even a slightly different view.
Consider the case of Matthew Rojansky, Director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is known as a middle-of-the-road expert of U.S. and Soviet/Russian relations – not a hawk, but also not an appeaser.
Rojansky was supposed to chair the Russia desk in Biden’s National Security Council. As soon as that became know the ‘Putin Whisperers’ came out in force to fight the nomination. Axios led the charge: Rojansky has been praised for his scholarship on Russia and is frequently cited in U.S. media for his expert commentary. But his work has drawn criticism — including in a 2018 open letter from Ukrainian alumni of Kennan that blasted the think tank he runs as an “unwitting tool of Russia’s political interference.”