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Jeb Bush. Photo by Reuters.

With opinion polls showing Bush a front-runner among Republicans jockeying for the 2016 presidential nomination, he appears set on avoiding getting entangled in debates about the foreign policy legacies of both past presidents Bush.

A list of foreign policy advisers whose counsel Jeb Bush will seek suggests he is trying to split the difference between party hawks and pragmatists. Many are drawn from the last three Republican administrations, including those of his father George H.W. Bush, brother George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

Bush will address the issue head-on in a speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He will stress the changed global circumstances that await the next president.

"I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make. But I am my own man, and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences," he will say.

While distancing himself from the legacies of his father and brother, Bush will seek also to differentiate his foreign policy from that of President Barack Obama, a Democrat whose leadership Bush will say has failed.

"Under this administration, we are inconsistent and indecisive," he will say. "We have lost the trust and the confidence of our friends. We definitely no longer inspire fear in our enemies."

It will be the former Florida governor's first major foray into foreign policy since he announced in December that he was considering a run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

According to speech excerpts released by Bush's political organization, he will say he has been lucky to have a father and older brother who have shaped U.S. foreign policy and that he recognizes "my views will often be held up in comparison to theirs - sometimes in contrast to theirs."

Bush is casting a wide net for advice on national security. An aide provided to Reuters a diverse list of 20 diplomatic and national security veterans who will be providing informal advice to Bush in the coming months.

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Republican Jeb Bush on foreign policy views: 'I am my own man'