June 24, 2015

Enabling Decision

Shaping the National Security Council for the Next President

By: Dafna Rand, Jacob Stokes, Julianne Smith and Shawn Brimley

Four CNAS experts - including three former National Security Council (NSC) staff - recommend changes to NSC management processes and structure to make it more agile and effective for the next president. The report is the inaugural installment of the Papers for the Next President series. Over the course of the next 18 months, CNAS will release reports designed to assist the next president and his or her team in crafting a strong, pragmatic, and principled national security agenda. The Papers for the Next President series will explore the most critical regions and topics that the next president will need to address early in his or her tenure and will include actionable recommendations designed to be implemented during the first few months of 2017.

Authors

  • Dafna Rand

  • Jacob Stokes

    Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Indo-Pacific Security Program

    Jacob Stokes is a Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at CNAS, where his work focuses on U.S.-China relations, Chinese foreign and military ...

  • Julianne Smith

    Former Adjunct Senior Fellow, Transatlantic Security Program

    Julianne (“Julie”) Smith is a contributing editor to Foreign Policy, where she coedits “Shadow Government.” She is also a senior advisor at WestExec Advisors, an adjunct senio...

  • Shawn Brimley

    Former Executive Vice President and Director of Studies

    Shawn Brimley was the Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where he managed the center’s research agenda and staf...