thumb|[[President of the United States|President George W. Bush during a National Security Council (NSC) meeting at the White House Situation Room, March 21, 2003. The participants in the meeting, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard B. Myers, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) George Tenet, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and White House Chief of Staff Andy Card.]]

The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the national security council used by the president of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and composed of senior national security advisors and presidential cabinet officials.

Since its inception in 1947 by President Harry S. Truman, the function of the council has been to advise and assist the president on national security and foreign policies. It also serves as the president's principal arm for coordinating these policies among various government agencies. The council has subsequently played a key role in most major events in U.S. foreign policy, from the Korean War to the war on terror.

History

The immediate predecessor to the National Security Council was the National Intelligence Authority (NIA), which was established by President Harry S. Truman's Executive Letter of January 22, 1946, to oversee the Central Intelligence Group, the CIA's predecessor. The NIA was composed of the secretary of state (James F. Byrnes and George C. Marshall), the secretary of war (Robert P. Patterson), the secretary of the Navy (James Forrestal), and a personal representative of President Truman (William D. Leahy, the chief of staff to the commander in chief).

thumb|President Ronald Reagan's National Security Council. Participants include [[George Shultz, William F. Martin, Cap Weinberger, Colin Powell and Howard Baker.]]

The National Security Council was created in 1947 by the National Security Act. It was created because policymakers felt that the diplomacy of the State Department was no longer adequate to contain the Soviet Union in light of the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States. The intent was to ensure coordination and concurrence among the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and other instruments of national security policy such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), also created in the National Security Act.

In 1953, the Eisenhower administration's NSC wrote three policy papers on opposing the People's Republic of China. NSC 146 proposed backing Republic of China maritime raids and raids against the Chinese mainland. NSC 148 proposed to foster and support anti-communist Chinese elements both inside and outside of the country. NSC 166 proposed strategies to deny the PRC full status in the international community, pursuant to the view that making any concessions would strengthen the PRC.

right|thumb|President Barack Obama at an NSC meeting in the Situation Room. Participants include Secretary of State [[Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, National Security Advisor Gen. James L. Jones, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, White House Counsel Greg Craig, CIA Director Leon Panetta, Deputy National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright, and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel]]

On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama merged the White House staff supporting the Homeland Security Council (HSC) and the National Security Council into one National Security Staff (NSS). The HSC and NSC each continue to exist by statute as bodies supporting the president. The name of the staff organization was changed back to National Security Council Staff in 2014.

The Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense was formed in 2016 under the Obama administration, disbanded in 2018 under the first Trump administration, and reinstated in January 2021 during the presidency of Joe Biden.

According to a White House memorandum in January 2017, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and director of national intelligence will only sit on the Principals Committee as and when matters pertaining to them arise, but will remain part of the full National Security Council. The reorganization also placed the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development as a permanent member of the Deputies Committee, winning moderate praise.

thumb|President [[Joe Biden discussing the Fall of Kabul with the National Security Council, August 18, 2021]]

On January 29, 2017, newly elected President Donald Trump restructured the Principals Committee (a subset of the full National Security Council), while at the same time altering the attendance of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and director of national intelligence. According to "National Security Presidential Memorandum 2", the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and director of national intelligence were to only sit on the Principals Committee as and when matters pertaining to them arise, but will remain part of the full National Security Council. However, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus clarified the next day that they still are invited to attend meetings.

With "National Security Presidential Memorandum 4" in April 2017, the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "shall" attend Principals Committee meetings and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency was included as a regular attendee. The reorganization also placed the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development as a permanent member of the Deputies Committee, while the White House chief strategist was removed.

According to a report by Reuters, the United States military ran a propaganda campaign to spread disinformation about the Sinovac Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, including using fake social media accounts saying that the Sinovac vaccine contained pork-derived ingredients and was therefore haram under Islamic law. The campaign was described as "payback" for COVID-19 disinformation by China directed against the U.S. The disinformation campaign began in 2020.

Authority and powers

The National Security Council was established by the National Security Act of 1947 (PL 235 – 61 Stat. 496; U.S.C. 402), amended by the National Security Act Amendments of 1949 (63 Stat. 579; 50 U.S.C. 401 et seq.). Later in 1949, as part of the Reorganization Plan, the council was placed in the Executive Office of the President.

The High Value Detainee Interrogation Group also reports to the NSC.

Kill authorizations

One of the tasks of the National Security Council is to determine and identify people, including United States citizens who are deemed to be threats to national security and add them to a "kill list". In this case, no public record of this decision or any operation to kill the suspect will be made available.

Reuters reported that Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, was on such a kill list and was killed accordingly. and National Security Memorandum–2.

The other members are the vice president (statutory), the secretary of state (statutory), the secretary of the treasury (statutory), the secretary of defense (statutory), the secretary of energy (statutory), the Assistant to the president for National Security Affairs(non-statutory), the assistant to the president and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (non-statutory), the attorney general (non-statutory), the secretary of homeland security (non-statutory), and the representative of the United States to the United Nations (non-statutory).

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" | Structure of the United States National Security Council

|-

! Chairman

| President

|-

! Regular attendees

|

|-

! Military advisor (and regular attendee)

| Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

|-

! Intelligence advisor (and regular attendee)

| Director of National Intelligence|White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator-->

|}

Principals Committee

The Principals Committee of the National Security Council is the Cabinet-level senior interagency forum for consideration of national security policy issues. The Principals Committee is convened and chaired by the national security advisor. The regular attendees of the Principals Committee are the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of defense, the attorney general, the secretary of energy, the secretary of homeland security, the White House chief of staff, the director of national intelligence, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the homeland security advisor, and the United States ambassador to the United Nations.

The White House counsel, the deputy counsel to the president for national security affairs, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the deputy national security advisor, the deputy national security advisor for strategy, the national security advisor to the vice president, and the NSC executive secretary may also attend all meetings of the Principals Committee. When considering international economic issues, the Principals Committee's regular attendees will include the secretary of commerce, the United States trade representative, and the assistant to the president for economic policy.

Deputies Committee

The National Security Council Deputies Committee is the senior sub-Cabinet interagency forum for consideration of national security policy issues. The Deputies Committee is also responsible for reviewing and monitoring the interagency national security process including for establishing and directing the Policy Coordination Committees. The Deputies Committee is convened and chaired by the deputy national security advisor or the deputy homeland security advisor. The directorate was disbanded when a May 2018 change in organizational structure by John Bolton, Trump's recently appointed head of the National Security Council, resulted in the effective elimination of the office then led by Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, Sr. Director for Global Health Security and Biothreats. Remaining staff were moved to other NSC departments, prompting Ziemer's resignation, thus completing the elimination of the office. Trump defended the 2018 cuts, describing the financial motivation, when questioned in a February 2020 press conference, suggesting that people on a pandemic response team are unnecessary between pandemics, saying "Some of the people we cut, they haven't been used for many, many years." No source of information could be found to support the president's statement, likely because the team was created in 2016 and disbanded in 2018. He continued: "And rather than spending the money—and I'm a business person—I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them." The size of the team before cuts was estimated at 430 people, but the "thousands" referenced by the president also included reduction in the staff numbers of the CDC.

In January 2021, the directorate was reinstated by President Joe Biden, who appointed Elizabeth Cameron as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense, a position she had previously held under the Obama administration and briefly under the Trump administration.

New members

During his presidential transition, President-elect Joe Biden announced the creation of the position of U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, the occupant of which was to be a member of the National Security Council. Former Secretary of State John Kerry served as the first envoy.

United States Office of Shipbuilding

Proposed in president Donald Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025, the United States Office of Shipbuilding was a government office, to be developed at the United States National Security Council. Trump announced the office as part of a comprehensive executive order designed to reinvigorate the United States' shipbuilding sector, as a means of competing against China's dominant position in the global maritime industry.

See also

  • Homeland Security Advisor
  • Homeland Security Council
  • National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-Terrorism
  • National Security Advisor
  • National Security Medal
  • Targeted killing
  • Title 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations
  • Tower Commission
  • Trump–Ukraine scandal

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Bahadir, Sanli. "Arzin Merkezine Seyahat: ABD Ulusal Güvenlik Konseyi" ["Journey to the Center of the World: U.S. National Security Council"]. Article on US NSC .
  • Best, Richard A. Jr. "The National Security Council: An Organizational Assessment". (Congressional Research Service, 2009) online.
  • Bolton, M. Kent. U.S. National Security and Foreign Policymaking After 9/11: Present at the Re-Creation, Rowman & Littlefield; 2007, .
  • Brown, Cody M. The National Security Council: A Legal History of the President's Most Powerful Advisers, Project on National Security Reform (2008).
  • Cutler, Robert. "The Development of the National Security Council". Foreign Affairs 34.3 (1956): 441–458. .
  • Daalder, Ivo H. and I. M. Destler, In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents They Served—From JFK to George W. Bush. Simon & Schuster; 2009, .
  • Annual Report to Congress on White House Office Staff; Executive Office of the President, Wednesday, July 1, 2009
  • Falk, Stanley L. "The National Security Council Under Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy". Political Science Quarterly 79.3 (1964): 403–434. .
  • Gans, John. White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War (Liveright, 2019). online review.
  • Karl F. Inderfurth and Loch K. Johnson, eds. Fateful Decisions: Inside the National Security Council. Oxford University Press, 2004. .
  • Nelson, Anna Kasten. "President Truman and the Evolution of the National Security Council". Journal of American History 72.2 (1985): 360–378. .
  • Nelson, Anna Kasten. "The 'top of policy hill': President Eisenhower and the National Security Council". Diplomatic History 7.4 (1983): 307–326. .
  • Rothkopf, David J. (March/April 2005). "Inside the Committee that Runs the World" (Archived copy, including missing image). Foreign Policy.
  • David J. Rothkopf, Running The World: the Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power, PublicAffairs; 2006, .
  • Sander, Alfred D. "Truman and the National Security Council: 1945–1947". Journal of American History (1972): 369–388. .
  • Advocates for a "National Board of Strategy".
  • Whittaker, Alan G., Frederick C. Smith, and Elizabeth McKune. The national security policy process: The national security council and interagency system (Industrial College of the Armed Forces, 2008).
  • History of the National Security Council 1947-1997. Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, August 1997.
  • History of the NSC from the White House
  • Records of the National Security Council (NSC) in the National Archives
  • White House Office, National Security Council Staff Papers, 1948–1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
  • Homeland Security Watch (www.HLSwatch.com) provides current details on the NSC as it pertains to homeland security.