The National Security Council Staff (NSC Staff) is important. It is critical—to the academy, the public, and the policymaking community—to explain why and how. In Washington, in the academy, and in popular culture, the NSC Staff is assumed to be, as one author wrote, simply a ;;product of the president it serves.” That is done despite the widely accepted belief that ;;where you stand depends on where you sit,” i.e. that members of each government institution tend to have a distinct culture, mission, and capabilities, from their counterparts in government and, often, from their supervisors. A review of the NSC Staff’s evolution reveals the NSC staff is an established bureaucracy with a distinct culture, mission, and capabilities. A study of presidential decisions during conflict in six administrations—using archival interviews and over fifty policymaker interviews—suggests that the NSC Staff has a cultural clock that is ticking faster than those of other government officials, and an unofficial mission to counteract strategic and interagency drift. The diversity of the NSC Staff members examined in these cases suggest that more than some personal attributes, the NSC Staff’s cultural clock and anti-drift mission drove NSC Staff behavior regardless of party, personality, and type; regardless of the prevailing international system, and regardless of domestic political context. An appreciation for the NSC Staff’s distinct culture and mission will permit scholars and practitioners to reliably predict, with ;;sensitivity” to personality, why, when and how NSC Staff members will shift from the preferred model of ;;honest broker” to a more forceful policy advocate.
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The Midnight Watch: The NSC Staff, Drift, and Decision in Conflict
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