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Voters arent seeing much of Hillary Clinton these days, leading some Democrats to wonder when their front-runner will enter the 2016 contest. Behind the scenes, she is prepping carefully for the race of her life.

Private meetings that shes held with various foreign-policy experts offer some hints as to how she might part ways with President Barack Obama when it comes to crises in Ukraine, Syria and other global trouble spots.Themajortakeaway from these private talks is that she wants a strategy more suited to shaping conditions overseas, as opposed to reacting to events as they arise, people familiar with the meetings said.

In these meetings,Mrs. Clintons habitis to go a round the room, asking questions and taking notes with pad and pen in hand.She has been looking for an analysis of current conditions and possible solutions but also a more proactive posture, some familiar with the meetings say.

Mr. Obama has seemed flat-footed at times in response to the Islamic States advances in Syria and Russian President Vladimir Putins aggressive moves to gain territory in Ukraine.

Theres a degree of concern that what were doing oftentimes looks to be reactive in response to what the problem of the moment is as opposed to what is the strategic approach and what might we be doing differently, said one person familiar with her thinking who requested anonymity.

As Secretary of State during Mr. Obamas first term, Mrs. Clinton played the role of loyal adviser in a foreign-policy apparatus that was run out of the White House; Mr. Obama was the one making the decisions.

It seems clear that if Mrs. Clinton wins the White House she would chart a different path than the one charted during the Obama administration.

In her 2014 book, Hard Choices, and in various speeches, Mrs. Clinton suggested she would have been more interventionist in Syria in 2012more willing than the president to arm moderate rebels in hopes of stopping the civil war. She has been unsparing in her criticism of Mr. Putin, likening territorial grabs in Ukraine to Adolph Hitlers aggression before World War II.

Shes much less risk-averse than Mr. Obama, said Aaron David Miller, vice president of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars who has taken part in Mrs. Clintons foreign-policy briefings.

If she becomes president, Mrs. Clinton might have some latitude to pursue a more activist foreign policy.Context is everything.

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Clinton Consults Experts to Chart Foreign-Policy Agenda