Page 279 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

N-Kushner.qxd 29-10-02 2:10 PM Page 258

258———National Security Council

Further Reading The NSC does not include the national security
adviser. The position of the assistant to the president
Bamford, James. Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-
secret National Security Agency: From the Cold War for national security affairs (also known as the national
Through the Dawn of a New Century. New York: Random security adviser) was created under President Dwight D.
House, 2001. Eisenhower in 1953 and has changed from being a
Black, Tricia E. “Taking Account of the World As It Will clearance coordinator across departments to being
Be: The Shifting Course of U.S. Encryption Policy.” the president’s personal confidant and spokesperson.
Federal Communications Law Journal, Vol. 53, No. 2, By definition, the NSC lies beyond the reach of con-
March 2001, 289-314. gressional oversight. It was only after the Iran-Contra
Hayden, Michael. Address to Kennedy Political Union of affair became public that a national security adviser
American University, February 17, 2000. www.nsa.gov/ was compelled to testify before the Congress. Most
releases. national security advisers have been either academics
National Security Agency (history, organization and func- or military officers. Two the most prominent advis-
tions, operations). www.fas.org/irp/nsa.
Pasternak, Douglas. “Terrorism at the Touch of a ers—Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski—
Keyboard.” U.S. News & World Report, Vol. 125, No. 2, were foreign born. President George W. Bush’s current
July 13, 1978, 37. adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is the first woman to be
Stender, J. Terrence. “Too Many Secrets: Challenges to the appointed to this post.
Control of Strong Crypto and the National Security Until the mid-1980s, U.S. antiterrorism policy was
Perspective.” Case Western Reserve Journal of Inter- focused on the prevention of domestic terrorist acts,
national Law, Vol. 30, No. 1, Winter 1998, 287-337. and the Department of State played the “lead agency”
role in responding to such incidents. With the spread
of terrorist attacks on American diplomats, tourists,
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL and airliners, and especially after the massacre of
Jewish athletes at the Munich Olympic Games in
1972, the White House started to build an institutional
After World War II, the United States emerged as foundation for its antiterrorism policy. Subsequently,
the leading Western power with an expanded foreign the Working Group on Terrorism (WGT), a subcom-
policy agenda. The National Security Act of 1947 mittee of the NSC, was created to provide the United
(Pub. L. 235- 61 Stat. 496; U.S.C. 402) established the States with a more efficient governmental structure
National Security Council (NSC) as an advisory body for coordinating and implementing anti- and countert-
to the president to oversee all branches of the govern- errorism policies among more than 30 federal agen-
ment involved in domestic, foreign, and military poli- cies, departments, and offices.
cies relating to national security. The critical task The WGT agency members were guided by three
of the NSC is to coordinate the policy process so that major goals: containment of terrorism while mini-
all agencies get a full and fair hearing, enabling the mizing open conflict with foreign states, avoiding the
president to make clear foreign policy decisions in a loss of American lives, and defeat of terrorism. The
timely manner. use of military force as the means of active defense
Every president has used the NSC to install a sys- against terrorism was promulgated in National
tem of national security policy making and coordina- Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 138, signed by
tion that reflects his personal management style as President Ronald Reagan in 1984. NSDD 138 also
well as political pressures, congressional demands, or redirected the focus of American foreign policy into
bureaucratic rivalry between departments. Statutory a more systematic and stronger effort to combat inter-
members of the NSC include the president, the vice national terrorism.
president, the secretary of state, and the secretary of Since the 1980s, the strategic aim of all U.S.
defense. The heads of other executive departments counterterrorism programs has been to disrupt covert
and agencies, as well as other senior officials, are terrorist groups and interdict plots and strategies. Other
invited to attend meetings of the NSC when appropri- aims include increasing diplomatic efforts to foster
ate. The NSC professional staff includes other mem- international cooperation, putting economic pressure
bers of military and research institutions and has on regimes aiding terrorism, increasing legislative
vacillated between three dozen and 200 members. efforts to tighten punishment for involvement in a