WaPo memo obtained by FBDC:

"We are delighted to announce that Glenn Kessler will take on a new role as player/coach for the national security staff and that John Pomfret will return to National, this time as a diplomatic correspondent concentrating on U.S. relations with China and the rest of Asia."

Glenn has spent more than seven years as The Post's main chronicler of the State Department and Secretaries of State from Colin Powell to Hillary Clinton. In his new role he will help oversee the coverage of U.S. foreign policy while continuing to cover U.S. relations with the Middle East. He will also occasionally fill in for Cameron Barr as editor.

The rest of the memo after the jump...

Glenn brings years of experience in penetrating Washington institutions, including the White House, Congress and Treasury, and has covered three presidential campaigns. He is the author of a highly-praised assessment of Condoleezza Rice's tenure as Secretary of State, "The Confidante," a feat he accomplished without benefit of book leave. His diplomatic reporting, especially on the Middle East and North Korea, has been competitive, insightful and newsy. Glenn joined the Post in 1998 and first served as national business editor, generating award-winning work from a staff of 12 reporters, before moving to the National Desk in 2002 to cover diplomacy. Before joining the Post, he won several national awards at Newsday for his coverage of airline safety and was part of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams.

John will focus his considerable talents on U.S. relations with Asia, developing a wide-ranging, multidisciplinary beat that will range from diplomatic and strategic issues to military affairs, economic relations and climate change.

John's 2 1/2 years as editor of Outlook have been distinguished by a strong emphasis on news and narrative, from landing Eliot Spitzer's first post-scandal essay on the failures of Wall Street to publishing tales such as Jake Adelstein's story about covering Japan's Yakuza for a Japanese newspaper.

Before that he had a storied career as a correspondent on the West coast and overseas, where he covered wars big and small in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Congo, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Turkey and Iran. John also spent seven years covering China - one in the late 1980s during the Tiananmen Square protests and then from 1998 until the end of 2003 as the Post's bureau chief in Beijing.

In 2003, John was awarded the Osborne Elliot Award for the best coverage of Asia by the Asia Society. In 2007, he won the Shorenstein Award from Harvard and Stanford universities for lifetime coverage of Asia. He is author of the critically-acclaimed "Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China."
Glenn and John will begin their new roles Sept. 21.

Liz Spayd Kevin Merida Cameron Barr