By Thea McDonald
On October 10, 2017, the Center for Strategic &
International Studies (CSIS) hosted
a panel titled The National Security
Council at 70: Charting the Future of America's Security.
CSIS President and CEO John J. Hamre moderated a coalition
of distinguished experts who, among the four, have seen and addressed our
nation’s most imminent national security issues over multiple generations. These
four men have all held the job of top adviser to the president for national
security. Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster joined three of his predecessors,
General James L. Jones Jr., Mr. Stephen Hadley and Dr. Henry Kissinger, to
discuss the history of our nation’s National Security Council (NSC) and the
issues the NSC currently faces.
Congressional
Collaboration
Faced with Congress’ oversight power and in possession of
executive branch authority, the NSC “sits at the fault line of the national
government,” Hamre noted as he asked for the panelists’ views on information
sharing with Congress and deference to the president. Lt. Gen. McMaster,
National Security Adviser to President Trump, expressed that his NSC aims to
include Members of Congress in early strategy development conversations as many
of the challenges our nation faces today require legislative fixes.
Gen. Jones, who served on Capitol Hill as a non-partisan
Marine Liaison Officer and then as National Security Adviser to President
Obama, opined that the NSC should “project an image of bipartisanship.” He
continued and noted, “When I became National Security Adviser, all of a sudden
I was a Democrat – and I didn’t know I was.”
President George W. Bush’s National Security Adviser Stephen
Hadley expressed that while his former position is not Senate-confirmable, he
spent plenty of time talking with Congress on national security priorities.
Dr. Kissinger, who served as National Security Adviser to
Presidents Nixon and Ford, and in other capacities under President Reagan, told
of older times “when bipartisanship wasn’t at its height” but during which he
and President Nixon held private, unrecorded meetings over drinks with members
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in their efforts to involve Congress
in their decision-making.
Strategy vs.
Operation
Noting that the NSC is faced with criticisms that its role
has devolved from strategic to operational – and that the NSC should be a forum
for strategy development – the panelists seemingly agreed that the agency’s
focus should indeed be developing integrated strategies, but that staying out
of the operations game is a difficult undertaking.
Technology’s Impact
According to Dr. Kissinger, when the U.S. government began
opening lines of communication with China, the U.S. sent printed letters via a
Pakistan diplomat, who would transfer the communications between the U.S. and
China – taking anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few months from sending a
letter until receiving a response.
Today, said Gen. Jones, the speed of information transfer
and technological development makes it necessary for the National Security
Adviser to always know what’s going on in every corner of the world, be able to
sift through that information, and distill what the president needs to know on
a daily basis.
Lt. Gen. McMaster acknowledged today’s technology-driven
challenges and described the importance of agency heads in the operation,
implementation and partnership in managing these challenges and contributing to
the development of national security strategies.
Pragmatic Realism
Reflecting on his predecessors’ comments about the current
national security situation, McMaster noted, “the stakes couldn’t be higher”
because new and sophisticated threats emerge daily. McMaster described today’s
threat pool as “democratization of destruction,” which “requires us to focus on
our strategic competence.”
According to McMaster, President Trump has assessed the
threats we face and laid out a strategy for moving forward. Put the safety and
security of the American people first. Coordinate economic, diplomatic and military
strategies. Prioritize “peace through strength.” Work to deter a broad range of
bad actors. Expand America’s influence across the globe, and capitalize on our relationships
with our allies. These are the ideals McMaster pinned to President Trump’s
“pragmatic realism” approach to national security to close out the session.
To watch the full panel discussion, click here.
