Obama's National Security Council

Here's a couple articles I found about the make up of Obama's security council. Help me out dig around and let me know what you all come across.

So far I've seen nothing about Andy Stern being listed. It does explain Stern's daily presence on the White House visitors log. Makes you wonder if Soros and Wolfe sit in when the talk turns to nukes or CIA secret ops. No biggie, we're all friends right?

Steve
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==

PPD-1, Obama’s National Security Council March 2, 2009
Posted by dglaudemans in Uncategorized.
Tags: Deputies Committee, Interagency Policy Committees, IPC, NSC, OMB, PPD-1, Principals Committee
trackback
On February 13, President Obama signed Presidential Policy Directive – 1 (PDD-1). This memo is his first national security policy directive and it outlines the structure and role of the National Security Council (NSC). Historically, Presidents use this first directive to adjust the composition of the NSC slightly and tinker with the national security decision-making process. President Obama, however, has significantly expanded the NSC structure to add the Attorney General, Secretary of Treasury, Secretary of Homeland Security, the US Ambassador to the UN, and the Chief of Staff to the President. In addition, the President’s Counsel is to be invited to attend every session and when appropriate, the Secretary of Commerce, the US Trade Representative and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors are also to be regualar attendees. Equally significant is the creation of Interagency Policy Committees (IPCs). These committees are tasked to manage the “development and implementation of national security policies by multiple agencies…”. This new capacity at the NSC is a major step forward in coordinating policy and programs that touch multiple agencies and require a central body to manage implementation.Interagency Policy Committees, if they function as intended, could be a crucial tool for the President to coordinate policies across the federal government. Issues such as security assistance, stabilization and reconstruction, counterterrorism, counternarcotics and nonproliferation require the resources of many federal departments and agencies. Historically, this interagency process has been ad hoc at best and non-existent at worst. Recent experiences in the reconstruction and stabilization of Iraq and Afghanistan provide ample evidence of this with the DOD, State, USAID, Agriculture, Commerce and many other federal agencies working with little to no coordination. A strong centralized coordinating body should have some effect in the management of interagency policy.

However, the IPCs lack any budgetary control over these policies and programs. And while OMB is part of the PC and DC – which directs the IPCs – there remains doubt that without any real control over the departments and agencies responsible for an interagency policy (budgetary control would be the most powerful), there is little that can actually be done through the IPCs. Despite this, the IPCs are the first step in centralizing the coordination of interagency policies and reducing the overlap and gaps that characterize much of these programs.

National Security Structure Is Set
Under Obama, Council Will Grow

TOOLBOX
Resize Print E-mail Yahoo! Buzz

COMMENT
5 Comments View All »
COMMENTS ARE CLOSED

Your browser's settings may be preventing you from commenting on and viewing comments about this item. See instructions for fixing the problem.
Discussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.



By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 27, 2009

President Obama's first presidential directive, outlining the organization of his national security structure, adds the attorney general, the secretaries of energy and homeland security, and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to the formal National Security Council.

The four-page directive sketches wide input to NSC meetings, providing for "regular" inclusion of senior trade, economic and science advisers.

The document puts national security adviser James L. Jones firmly in charge of setting the NSC agenda and communicating Obama's decisions to the others. Jones will determine when to call White House meetings of policymaking "principals" and will police implementation of assigned tasks.

All post-World War II presidents, with the exception of Ronald Reagan in his first term, have begun their administrations with similar documents. Although most have contracted or enlarged the list of senior officials included in the formal structure -- usually by one or two officials either way -- Obama's is by far the most expansive, in keeping with his definition of national security to include economic, climate, energy and cyber-threats.


Few presidents have followed the letter or often even the spirit of their national security directives under the pressure of crises and internal power struggles. President George W. Bush's six-page directive set out an orderly policymaking system that was thwarted early on by the relative weakness of his initial national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, the supremacy of Vice President Richard B. Cheney among his advisers, and clashes between Donald H. Rumsfeld and Colin L. Powell, his first secretaries of defense and state. The upheaval of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks created a more narrow structure.

Obama also has divided his national security orders into two categories: presidential policy directives, and presidential study directives, designed to initiate and direct policy reviews. A copy of Policy Directive 1, the NSC directive signed on Feb. 13, was obtained by The Washington Post.

Study Directive 1, dated Feb. 23 and made available this week by Secrecy News, orders an interagency review of the White House homeland security and counterterrorism structure. Headed by counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan, the review will recommend whether to retain the separate the Homeland Security Council established under the Bush administration, or to incorporate some or all of its functions within the NSC.

Obama's security directive also establishes an elaborate system of interagency policy committees to coordinate analysis and reviews of issues "for consideration by the more senior committees . . . and ensure timely responses to decisions made by the President."

Under the 1947 National Security Act that created it, the National Security Council included only the president, vice president, and secretaries of state and defense. The CIA director and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been added by most presidents.

Obama's directive includes all of these and new members from Energy and Homeland Security, as well as the attorney general. He follows in the footsteps of President Bill Clinton by including his U.N. ambassador -- although Bush did not -- and mandating that his White House counsel, Gregory B. Craig, "shall be invited to attend every NSC meeting," along with Tom Donilon, his deputy national security adviser.

International economic, homeland security, counterterrorism, science and technology advisers are to become "regular members" when their issues are "on the agenda of the NSC," the directive says.