National Security Council

(noun)

The White House National Security Council (NSC) in the US is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Since its inception under Harry S. Truman, the function of the Council has been to advise and assist the president on national security and foreign policies. The Council also serves as the president's principal arm for coordinating these policies among various government agencies.

Related Terms

Examples of National Security Council in the following topics:

  • The Military Implementation of Containment

    • During the Cold War it meant intervening to prevent the spread of Communism to new countries but not attacking nations that were already Communist.
    • In May, 1949, fighting between North and South Korean troops broke out near the border between the two nations.
    • In his autobiography, President Truman acknowledged that fighting the invasion was essential to the American goal of the global containment of communism as outlined in the National Security Council Report 68 (NSC-68).
    • On June 27, 1950 the United Nations security Council first adopted a ceasefire resolution.
    • When the United Nations Security Council voted to aid South Korea in stopping North Korean aggression, the United States agreed to send troops to the Korean Peninsula.

  • The Iran-Contra Scandal

    • Some U.S. officials also hoped that the arms sales would secure the release of hostages and allow U.S. intelligence agencies to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
    • Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua
    • After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, Reagan appeared on national television and stated that the weapons transfers had indeed occurred, but that the United States did not trade arms for hostages.
    • The U.S. later blocked enforcement of the judgment by the United Nations Security Council and thereby prevented Nicaragua from obtaining any actual compensation.
    • Office of Public Diplomacy, National Security Council.

  • Obama's Foreign Policy

    • The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as the Iran Deal, is an international agreement on the nuclear program of Iran reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015 between Iran, the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—plus Germany), and the European Union.
    • The agreement provides that in return for verifiably abiding by its commitments, Iran will receive relief from U.S., European Union, and United Nations Security Council nuclear-related sanctions.
    • In 2011, the United States was the only nation to veto a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestine, with the United States being the only nation to do so.

  • National Security

    • As a measure to ensure national security in the midst of the Cold War, President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 on July 26, 1947 .
    • Aside from the military reorganization, the act established the National Security Council, a central place of coordination for national security policy in the executive branch, and the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S.' s first peacetime intelligence agency.
    • Similarly, the Joint Chiefs of Staff was officially established under the original National Security Act of 1947.
    • Truman signed the National Security Act in 1947, which realigned and reorganized the U.S.
    • Outline the ways in which the Cold War shaped U.S. national security policy

  • The Invasion of Grenada

    • The Invasion of Grenada was a 1983 United States-led invasion of Grenada, a Caribbean island nation.
    • The Invasion of Grenada was a 1983 United States-led invasion of Grenada, a Caribbean island nation with a population of about 91,000, located 100 miles (160 km) north of Venezuela.
    • On October 25, Grenada was invaded by the combined forces of the United States and the Regional Security System (RSS) based in Barbados, in an operation codenamed Operation Urgent Fury.
    • The United Nations General Assembly condemned it as "a flagrant violation of international law" by a vote of 108 in favour to 9, with 27 abstentions.The United Nations Security Council considered a similar resolution, which failed to pass when vetoed by the United States.
    • Includes Royal Barbados Police Force personnel and soldiers of unknown nationality.

  • Conclusion: Truman and the Beginning of the Cold War

    • Cold War strategy, Truman also signed the National Security Act of 1947 and reorganized military forces by merging the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment (later the Department of Defense) and creating the U.S.
    • The act also created the CIA and the National Security Council.
    • In 1952, Truman secretly consolidated and empowered the cryptologic elements of the United States by creating the National Security Agency (NSA).
    • To Stalin's surprise, the UN Security Council backed the defense of South Korea, though the Soviets were then boycotting meetings in protest that Taiwan and not Communist China held a permanent seat on the Council.
    • President Truman signs the National Security Act Amendment of 1949 with guests in the Oval Office.

  • Central America

    • Reagan provided controversial support to the right-wing El Salvador government and all branches of the security apparatus throughout his term; he feared a takeover by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) during the El Salvador Civil War which had begun in 1979.
    • On May 1, 1985, President Reagan announced that his administration perceived Nicaragua to be "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States" and declared a "national emergency" and a trade embargo against Nicaragua.
    • Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund Contras in Nicaragua.
    • Nicaragua then took its case to the UN Security Council, which passed a resolution affirming the Court ruling and calling on both states to observe international law; however, the U.S. used its veto to block the resolution.
    • Official seal of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, also known as the School of the Americas

  • The United Nations

    • The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in London in January 1946.
    • Chapter 6 describes the Security Council's power to investigate and mediate disputes, while Chapter 7 discusses the power to authorize economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions, as well as the use of military force, to resolve disputes.
    • Throughout the Cold War, the tensions on the UN Security Council made it difficult to implement peacekeeping measures in countries and regions seen to relate to the spread or containment of leftist and revolutionary movements.
    • The end of political gridlock in the Security Council helped the number of peacekeeping missions increased substantially.
    • In a new spirit of cooperation, the Security Council established larger and more complex UN peacekeeping missions.

  • Yalta and the Postwar World

    • Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern and Central Europe, an essential aspect of the USSR's national security strategy.
    • Furthermore, the Soviets had agreed to join the United Nations, given the secret understanding of a voting formula with a veto power for permanent members of the Security Council, thus ensuring that each country could block unwanted decisions.
    • Creation of a reparation council that would be located in the Soviet Union.
    • Roosevelt obtained a commitment by Stalin to participate in the United Nations.
    • Its purpose was to decide whether Germany was to be divided into six nations.

  • The League of Nations

    • Its primary goals included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.
    • The league held its first council meeting in Paris in January 1920, six days after the Versailles Treaty came into force.
    • The league’s major weaknesses can be summed up in three categories: Representation, collective security and enforcement.
    • The second important weakness grew from the contradiction between the idea of collective security that formed the basis of the league and international relations between individual states.
    • The league's collective security system required nations to act, if necessary, against states they considered friendly, and in a way that might endanger their national interests, to support states for which they had no normal affinity.