About the National Security Council Project

The National Security Council Project is co-directed by Ivo H. Daalder and I.M. "Mac" Destler, and co-sponsored by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM).

This project represents the most comprehensive study of the National Security Council (NSC) to date, from its origins in 1947 through the Clinton Administration. The project began in the wake of the NSC's 50th anniversary and continues into the new millennium and a new administration, centering on the following questions:

How have Presidents used the NSC and its director, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs?

What roles has the National Security Assistant played, with what impact on policy formulation?

What have been the principal patterns and changes, over time, in:
  • The size and structure of the NSC staff?
  • The NSC-led system of interagency policy coordination?
  • The NSC's relationship to other policy leadership institutions, other White House policy staffs, the State and Defense Departments?
  • The NSC's substantive reach?
Answers to these questions will form the basis for conclusions about the NSC's actual role and impact in U.S. foreign policymaking and recommendations on the management of U.S. foreign policy in the next century.

The NSC Project examines the institution's importance in the U.S. foreign policy process, and focuses on both its historical evolution and on key issues relating to structure, staff, policy, and interagency process.