Explainer: The U.S. National Security Council (NSC)

The National Security Council: An Overview

The National Security Council (NSC) advises the President of the United Status on issues of foreign policy, national security, and homeland security. The NSC, as an advisory body, consists of several members defined by statute – including the Vice President and the Secretaries of State and Defense – and other members whom the President may ask to sit in. This core function of integrating instruments of national power has remained consistent since the Council’s creation in 1947.

The NSC also develops policy for the President through a system of committees that bring together representatives across departments and agencies. This structure helps tease through issues and organizational disagreements at lower levels so the President can make decisions based on the best options and the best information available. It also ensures that departments and agencies with something at stake have an equal opportunity to weigh in. 

Finally, the NSC consists of a staff headed by the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (“the National Security Advisor”) who coordinate the interagency policy process.

Senior NSC staffers tend to be political appointees. Junior NSC staffers are predominantly career government officials on loan from a department or agency. Federal law caps the number of NSC policy staff at 200.

History of the NSC

The NSC traces its inception to the National Security Act of 1947. Prior to World War II, Presidents relied on informal arrangements to coordinate foreign policy and military activities, given America’s less-involved role on the global stage – and relatively small national security apparatus. 

The restructuring of the global order after World War II showed that issues of diplomacy, defense, and development were becoming too complex and intertwined for ad-hoc mechanisms. The National Security Act created the NSC – along with the Central Intelligence Agency and the modern Department of Defense – to address the growing challenges of managing U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century.

Who sits on the NSC?

The National Security Act designates the following as statutory members of the National Security Council: 

• The Vice President, 
• The Secretary of State, 
• The Secretary of Defense,
• The Secretary of Energy, and 
• The Secretary of the Treasury. 

Federal law also includes the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the NSC as statutory advisors to the NSC. These officials have non-voting seats on the NSC to reinforce their impartial roles in advising the NSC on military and intelligence matters.

The President may designate other officials as regular attendees or regular invitees. Such choices – i.e. who gets a seat at the NSC table – can offer hints about an Administration’s priorities and organizational preferences. The current NSC participant list, per the National Security Presidential Memorandum issued on January 20, 2025, includes: 

• The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (non-voting advisor), 
• The White House Chief of Staff, 
• The Attorney General, 
• The Secretary of the Interior,
• Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor (non-voting)

Regular invitees:

• The Assistant to the President and Counsel to the President,
• The Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy,
• The Assistant to the President for Policy,
• The Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs and Legal Counsel to the National Security Advisor.

What does the NSC do?

The NSC plays advisory, policy development, and coordinating roles. It does not manage military or intelligence operations. 

By statute, the NSC’s functions are to:

1. Advise the President with respect to the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to the national security so as to enable the Armed Forces and the other departments and agencies of the United States Government to cooperate more effectively in matters involving the national security;
2. Assess and appraise the objectives, commitments, and risks of the United States in relation to the actual and potential military power of the United States, and make recommendations thereon to the President; 
3. Make recommendations to the President concerning policies on matters of common interest to the departments and agencies of the United States Government concerned with the national security; and
4. Coordinate, without assuming operational authority, the United States Government response to malign foreign influence operations and campaigns.
    

How does the NSC process work?

The modern NSC system is consultative and vertical. Theoretically, policy options flow up to the President while decisions flow down to departments and agencies. The Trump Administration’s NSC process relies on the following organizational scheme:

• The National Security Council: Strictly speaking, the NSC refers to the gathering of Cabinet-level officials when the President chairs the meeting. 
• The Principals Committee (PC): Under the NSC is the Principals Committee. PC meeting attendees almost always will be Cabinet-level officials, like at an NSC meeting. But, unlike an NSC meeting, the National Security Advisor customarily chairs PC meetings. The PC finalizes policy recommendations for presidential consideration and works to resolve major interagency disagreements before the President gets involved.
• The Deputies Committee (DC): Under the PC is the Deputies Committee (DC). A DC meeting is chaired by a Deputy National Security Advisor and typically includes the seconds-in-command of departments and agencies. The DC coordinates crisis management, monitors implementation of presidential decisions, and reviews proposals bubbling up from lower levels of the interagency process.
• Policy Coordination Committees (PCC). Under the DC sit numerous Policy Coordination Committees. (The Biden Administration called these Interagency Policy Committees.) PCCs convene agency representatives at the rank of Assistant Secretary, and they may be chaired by a NSC staff member. PCCs focus on specific countries, regions, or topics and are the most “in the weeds” on interagency policy assessments and options. PCCs may rely on subgroups, known as sub-PCCs (or sub-IPCs), to study issues at more junior levels of representation.

Sensitive issues may warrant smaller groups of participants. Here, the Trump Administration’s “Houthi PC [Principals Committee] small group” Signal chat likely was established for a Cabinet-level dialogue with a more restricted audience. Similarly, under President Biden, it was not uncommon for a “Principals Small Group” or “Deputies Small Group” to occur in place of a larger PC or DC meeting. Titles change, but this overarching NSC model has largely remained consistent since the George H. W. Bush Administration. 

There was more variation in structure during the Cold War as Presidents organized their NSC processes to reflect personal management styles. Tellingly, President Dwight D. Eisenhower – a former general – established a highly hierarchical decision-making system while President John F. Kennedy came into office preferring more informality. 

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John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum