Demystifying The National Security Council: Examining the NSC interagency relationships, structure, and strengths and weaknesses
By: Alexandra Blum | March 14, 2023
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Born in 1947, the National Security Council has become the central forum for shaping US national security. The NSC has flexed its muscles in all major foreign policy engagements, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the War on Terror. NSC leadership has been credited with extraordinary success, such as coordination and planning during the first Gulf War, but also prominent failures, such as the Iran-Contra scandal. The decisions made within the NSC process cannot be understated: its daily activities impact billions of lives.
The NSC is unique given its location within the White House. Unlike other federal agencies like the Departments of Defense or State, it requires no direct oversight from Congress. Reinvented anew with every administration, the NSC has seen itself molded by personality, circumstance, and political pressures which meaningfully altered the systems that shaped the most important decisions of the last decades. Perhaps no national security agency has undergone as much change in the post-World War II era. Because of this, the NSC presents a vital case study of foreign policy reform.
This report unpacks how the NSC operates, who wields decision-making power, and how fourteen successive presidents have adapted it to respond to the priorities at hand. Understanding the NSC is foundational to recommending calibrated reforms for the rest of the national security apparatus.
