National Security Council

As the twentieth century ended, Canada was completing its sixth term on the UN Security Council. A decade later, Ottawa’s attempt to return to the council was dramatically rejected by its global peers, leaving Canadians – and international observers – shocked and disappointed. Canada on the United Nations Security Council tells the story of that defeat and what it means for future campaigns, describing and analyzing Canada’s attempts since 1946, both successful and unsuccessful, to gain a seat as a non-permanent member. Impeccably researched and clearly written, this is the definitive history of the Canadian experience on the world’s most powerful stage.

This revelatory history of the elusive National Security Council shows how staffers operating in the shadows have driven foreign policy clandestinely for decades. When Michael Flynn resigned in disgrace as the Trump administration’s national security advisor the New York Times referred to the National Security Council as “the traditional center of management for a president’s dealings with an uncertain world.” Indeed, no institution or individual in the last seventy years has exerted more influence on the Oval Office or on the nation’s wars than the NSC, yet until the explosive Trump presidency, few Americans could even name a member. With key analysis, John Gans traces the NSC’s rise from a collection of administrative clerks in 1947 to what one recent commander-in-chief called the president’s “personal band of warriors.” A former Obama administration speechwriter, Gans weaves extensive archival research with dozens of news-making interviews to reveal the NSC’s unmatched power, which has resulted in an escalation of hawkishness and polarization, both in Washington and the nation at large.

The National Security Council is the most important formal institution inthe government of the United States for the creation and implementation offoreign and defense policy. The Council's four principal members - thePresident, Vice President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense - areresponsible for incredibly vast decisions of war and peace, diplomacy,international trade, and covert operations. Yet, despite its obvious importance,the NSC has been subject to relatively little scholarly scrutiny, and remainsmisunderstood by most IR students. This edited collection, built upon the firstedition originally published under the title Decisions of the Highest Order atBrooks-Cole, presents a collection of seminal articles, essays, and documentsdrawn from a variety of sources, that will offer revealing coverage of keytopics such as the rise of the National Security Adviser to a position ofprominence, key challenges to the NSC, and the role of the NSC in a post-ColdWar environment.

Never before in the history of mankind have so few people had so much power over so many. The people at the top of the American national security establishment, the President and his principal advisors, the core team at the helm of the National Security Council, are without question the most powerful committee in the history of the world. Yet, in many respects, they are among the least understood. A former senior official in the Clinton Administration himself, David Rothkopf served with and knows personally many of the NSC's key players of the past twenty-five years. In Running the World he pulls back the curtain on this shadowy world to explore its inner workings, its people, their relationships, their contributions and the occasions when they have gone wrong. He traces the group's evolution from the final days of the Second World War to the post-Cold War realities of global terror -- exploring its triumphs, its human dramas and most recently, what many consider to be its breakdown at a time when we needed it most. Drawing on an extraordinary series of insider interviews with policy makers including Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, senior officials of the Bush Administration, and over 130 others, the book offers unprecedented insights into what must change if America is to maintain its unprecedented worldwide leadership in the decades ahead.

The Nat. Security Council (NSC) was established in 1947 to create an inter-departmental body to advise the President with respect to the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to the national security. This report traces the evolution of the NSC from its creation to the present. The organization and influence of the NSC have varied significantly from one Administration to another, from a highly structured and formal system to loose-knit teams of experts. The NSC staff should be organized to meet the particular goals and work habits of an incumbent President. The history of the NSC provides ample evidence of the advantages and disadvantages of different types of policymaking structures.

The nature and scope of UN Security Council decisions - significantly changed in the post-Cold War era - have enormous implications for the conduct of foreign policy. The UN Security Council offers a comprehensive view of the council both internally and as a key player in world politics. Focusing on the evolution of the council's treatment of key issues, the authors discuss new concerns that must be accommodated in the decisionmaking process, the challenges of enforcement, and shifting personal and institutional factors. Case studies complement the rich thematic chapters. The book sheds much-needed light on the central events and trends of the past decade and their critical importance for the future role of the council and the UN in the sphere of international security.