There are two names that likely stand out for Powell.

During his tenure as president George W. Bush’s secretary of State, Powell found himself at odds with neoconservatives in the administration, at least one of whom advises Romney. Though he is not listed as an official member of Romney’s foreign-policy and national-security advisory team, former U.N. ambassador and prominent neoconservative John Bolton has been identified in media reports as an influential policy voice in Romney’s circle.

During Bolton’s 2005 Senate confirmation, anonymous sources informed the Washington Post that Bolton had prevented a 2003 memo, on international support for U.S.-backed investigation of Iran’s nuclear program, from reaching Powell’s desk. Powell, meanwhile, privately urged Republican senators to vote Bolton down. Romney’s advisers aren’t exclusively neocons, but Bolton leads a faction with which Romney usually sides, the New York Times’ David Sanger reported this month.