National Security Council

After World War II, the United States emerged as the leading Western power. To meet the administrative demands of this new role, President Harry Truman approved a massive reorganization of the U.S. security system. The Security Act of 1947 (PL 235–61 Stat. 496; U.S.C. 402) created the Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. The NSC is an advisory body to the president on national security and foreign policy matters, and it coordinates such policies among the branches of the government involved in domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to national security. The critical task of the NSC is to coordinate the policy process so that all agencies get a full and fair hearing, enabling the president to make clear foreign policy decisions in a timely manner.

Every president has used the NSC to install a system of national security policymaking and coordination that reflects his personal management style and that responds to prevailing political pressures, congressional demands, and bureaucratic rivalries. Statutory members of the NSC include the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The heads of other executive departments and agencies, new positions such as secretary of homeland security and director of national intelligence, as well as other senior officials, are invited to attend meetings of the NSC when appropriate. The NSC professional staff includes other members of the military, foreign policymakers, and research institutions and has vacillated between 36 and 200 members. President George W. Bush's first national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, reduced her staff to about one-third of that of her predecessor. Working groups or subcommittees are usually established to deal with new security threats or specific parts of the globe. Each incoming president also reorganizes the NSC in line with his foreign policy goals.

The national security adviser is not a statutory member of the NSC, but typically participates in meetings. The position of the assistant to the president for national security affairs (the formal title of the national security adviser) was created under President Eisenhower in 1953 and has changed [Page 425]from being a clearance coordinator across departments to being the president's personal confidant and spokesperson. He or she funnels security-related information from the Department of State, Department of Defense, CIA, and other agencies to the president. The adviser is appointed by the president and does not need congressional approval. Most of those who have held this position have been either academics or military officers. Two of the most prominent national security advisers—Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski—were foreign-born. Rice, a professor at Stanford University, was the first woman appointed to this post.

The NSC traditionally has had to coordinate terrorism and counterterrorism responsibilities spread across a range of departments. The FBI played the “lead agency” role in responding to domestic terrorists, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) handled disaster recovery efforts, and the Pentagon focused on military solutions, while the State Department had responsibility for attacks against U.S. citizens or facilities abroad. Foreign terrorist groups and events were views as regional problems. Irish terrorism was handled by the British desk at the State Department, for example, while Palestinian groups were assigned to the Middle East division.

...