A unique feature of the NSC project is its Oral History Roundtables, six of which have been organized to date. These roundtables bring together practioners of the period under study for an intensive discussion of the issues—be it how a particular administration structured and operated the NSC and organized its foreign policymaking process or how successive NSC organizations tackled important issues like arms control, China policy, and international economic policy. A roundtable with five former national security advisers (supplemented with interviews with three additional advisers) was also convened.

The following transcripts of past oral history sessions are now available:

Assessing the Bush Foreign Policy Transition

Clinton Administration National Security Council

Arms Control Policy and the National Security Council

China Policy and the National Security Council

The Role of the National Security Adviser

The Bush Administration National Security Council

International Economic Policymaking and the National Security Council

The Nixon Administration National Security Council