Obama’s NSC takes power

Under the leadership of national security advisor Gen. James L. Jones (ret.), the Obama NSC has moved to assert greater White House control over the policymaking process.

In official Washington, who’s in the room as well as who runs the meetings can be a key source of power and influence. It is therefore worth noting that Jones has directed NSC officials to lead interagency meetings with their counterparts not only at the principals and deputies level, but also in regional interagency working groups that were previously headed by State Department officials.

Some outside observers said the White House seems to be "shadowing" the other agencies.

"They are trying to change the culture, to create a mega White House, and mega NSC," a former Hill Democratic foreign-policy hand said. For many federal agency heads, the Obama administration has appointed a corresponding White House "czar" he noted: there’s a secretary of health and human services, and a White House healthcare czar. There’s a secretary of energy and administrator of the EPA, and a White House energy czar.

"It’s not important who chairs the meetings," said one senior State Department official who confirmed the new arrangement. "What’s really important is how much value added the NSC brings to the table. Is the NSC an enabler of good ideas and supporter of strategic guidance, or is it a micromanager?

"Anybody who says this is a power grab is simply silly," he continued. "It depends on how it works and on what the NSC is trying to do."

So far, he has no complaints, the official said. "In terms of how he’s framed things, Obama and the vice president have given us exactly what we need to advance a good agenda: political muscle, clear direction, people working pretty well, a lot more harmony."

In previous administrations, dating back to 1989, the principals and deputies committees have been chaired by the NSC. But on lower-level committees, the Obama administration goes a step further than its two predecessors. Under Clinton, the NSC chaired some key functional interagency working groups, but regional working groups were chaired by State. Under Bush, the same policy was followed, with the NSC serving as executive secretary for non-NSC chaired committees. Under Obama, however, the NSC chairs everything, though some committees can and will be cochaired.

"We have reenergized the interagency process and are aggressively putting together new policy on a range of issues," a senior NSC official, speaking on background, said of the changes. "The NSC should be at the center of that process: coordinating, making sure everyone with equities is engaged and is heard.  It is working as it should."

Some of the new arrangements are spelled out in Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive-1 (pdf), issued late last month. Among other changes, it includes more agencies in the NSC process.

"Obama is a man of great policy interest and great self-confidence," observed I.M. Destler, a professor at the University of Maryland and coauthor with Ivo Daalder of a new book on the NSC, In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents They Served from JFK to George W. Bush. In some respects, he said, "Kennedy is a good model [with which] to look at Obama. They are both former senators who managed large White House operations; they’re both quite intellectual, … Obama even more so. And they are both more interested in getting advice from people on substance than in the former position of that individual."

But the added agencies and expanded authorities also add complexity to the organization, he cautioned.

"With the possible exception of Jones, I don’t know anyone who was brought in because they have special skills in managing a process," Destler further observed. "Obama wants to have a lot of strains of information to view and consider things himself. But I don’t see how that works in the long run. The president has too much to do. It is just too much of a burdern for the president to assume. Some things sort themselves out. Some people turn out to be good channels to the president; some not."

"Right now, everything is hunky dory," said David Rothkopf, author of a book on the NSC, Running the World. "But sooner or later, on some issue — energy security, or the economic crisis — someone will say that we need to have the agenda over here."

For now, Jones’s moves to assert a more predominant NSC and lines of authority are "part of marking out the territory and saying ‘This is how it’s supposed to work,’" Rothkopf continued. "The challenge is going to be getting the NSC to fill the role that he is defining for it. Having the right people and having a disciplined system and empowering them."