President-elect Barack Obama reportedly will ask Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain in office for at least a year.

That would be a good move. Mr. Gates has done an outstanding job as defense chief, having replaced Donald Rumsfeld in December 2006. When Mr. Gates took office, violence was escalating in Iraq. On his watch, the "surge" of U.S. troops under Gen. David Petraeus reduced the violence in Iraq and allowed the mission to move forward.

Mr. Gates, who resigned his post as president of Texas A&M University to serve as defense secretary, is a former CIA director under President George H.W. Bush. He has served on the National Security Council under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Secretary Gates is a pragmatist, sensible and realistic. He has a keen sense of history and has given several talks about international trends in military and foreign policy. After serving at the CIA from 1966 to 1993, he wrote his memoirs: "From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War."

In addition to Mr. Gates, the new administration has chosen retired Marine Gen. James Jones, a former NATO supreme commander, to be national security adviser. Mr. Jones led a recent study that found NATO was not winning in Afghanistan and warned that failure there would be as serious as losing in Iraq.

Mr. Obama needs experience and continuity in military and national security policy. Keeping Mr. Gates on board achieves that, and Gen. Jones appears to be a good choice as well.