The National Security Council NSC

World War II showed how badly the State, War, and Navy departments coordinated, and the National Security Act of 1947 created a council to fix it. The National Security Council brought the President together with the senior officials for diplomacy and defense to advise on the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies. It met for the first time on September 26, 1947. Dwight Eisenhower created the position of special assistant for national security affairs in 1953, the post now called national security advisor, and moved the council into the Executive Office of the President.

The council's statutory members include the President, the Vice President, and the Secretaries of State and Defense, with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Director of National Intelligence as statutory advisers, and others such as the Treasury Secretary, the Attorney General, and the White House chief of staff invited as the President chooses. Beneath the full council, a Principals Committee of cabinet officials and a Deputies Committee of their seconds work through most issues before they reach the President. The NSC staff, led by the national security advisor, runs that process, drafts presidential decisions, and coordinates every agency involved in national security.

The national security advisor is not confirmed by the Senate and does not testify to Congress, which makes the post among the most powerful in government and among the least accountable. Advisors have ranged from honest brokers who presented options neutrally, such as Brent Scowcroft, to dominant figures who ran policy themselves, such as Henry Kissinger. The NSC staff grew from a few dozen in the 1960s to roughly 400 under Barack Obama, a size critics in both parties said turned it into a shadow State Department.

The NSC's history includes the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s, when staff members secretly ran arms sales and funneled the proceeds to Nicaraguan rebels in defiance of Congress, leading to reforms that barred the staff from operations. In 2025 the administration cut the staff sharply, returned many detailees to their agencies, and after the national security advisor departed in May named the Secretary of State to hold the post in an acting capacity alongside his cabinet role. Supporters said a leaner staff would end micromanagement. Critics said it concentrated power and weakened the interagency process.