Robert Blackwill was a member of the Vulcans advisory team and later served directly under Condoleezza Rice at the NSC. After the 2000 election, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to India (2001-2003), then Rice brought him to the NSC as Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Planning (2003-2004). Blackwill had previously served in the George H.W. Bush administration alongside Rice. He was known as a demanding and sometimes abrasive personality. After leaving government, he became a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His trajectory from Vulcans member to Rice subordinate at the NSC illustrates how the campaign advisory team became the governing apparatus.