National Security Advisor (United States)

The assistant to the president for national security affairs (APNSA), commonly referred to as the national security advisor (NSA),^{[2][Note 1]} is a senior aide in the Executive Office of the President, based at the West Wing of the White House.^[3]

Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Incumbent Michael Waltz since January 20, 2025
Executive Office of the President
Member of	National Security Council Homeland Security Council
Reports to	President of the United States
Appointer	President of the United States
Constituting instrument	National Security Presidential Memorandum[1]
Formation	1953
First holder	Robert Cutler
Deputy	Deputy National Security Advisor
Website	wh.gov/nsc

The national security advisor serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all national security issues. The national security advisor participates in meetings of the National Security Council (NSC) and usually chairs meetings of the principals committee of the NSC with the secretary of state and secretary of defense (those meetings not attended by the president). The NSA also sits on the Homeland Security Council (HSC). The national security advisor is supported by NSC staff who produce classified research and briefings for the national security advisor to review and present, either to the NSC or the president.

The national security advisor is appointed by the president and does not require confirmation by the United States Senate. An appointment of a three- or four-star general to the role requires Senate confirmation to maintain that rank in the new position.^[4]

Role

The influence and role of the national security advisor varies from administration to administration and depends not only on the qualities of the person appointed to the position, but also on the style and management philosophy of the incumbent president.^[5] ideally, the national security advisor serves as an honest broker of policy options for the president in the field of national security, rather than as an advocate for his or her own policy agenda.^[6]

The national security advisor is a staff position in the Executive Office of the President and does not have line or budget authority over either the Department of State or the Department of Defense, unlike the secretary of state and the secretary of defense, who are Senate-confirmed officials with statutory authority over their departments.^[7] The national security advisor is able to offer daily advice (due to the proximity) to the president independently of the vested interests of the large bureaucracies and clientele of those departments.^[5]

In times of crisis, the national security advisor is likely to operate from the White House Situation Room or the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (as on September 11, 2001),^[8] updating the president on the latest events in a crisis situation.

History

President George H. W. Bush meets in the Oval Office with his NSC about Operation Desert Shield, 1991

The National Security Council was created at the start of the Cold War under the National Security Act of 1947 to coordinate defense, foreign affairs, international economic policy, and intelligence; this was part of a large reorganization that saw the creation of the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency.^[9][10] The Act did not create the position of the national security advisor per se, but it did create an executive secretary in charge of the staff. In 1949, the NSC became part of the Executive Office of the President.^[9]

Robert Cutler was the first national security advisor in 1953, and held the job twice, both times during the Eisenhower administration. The system has remained largely unchanged since then, particularly since President John Kennedy, with powerful national security advisors and strong staff but a lower importance given to formal NSC meetings. This continuity persists despite the tendency of each new president to replace the advisor and senior NSC staff.^[9]

President Richard Nixon's national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, enhanced the importance of the role, controlling the flow of information to the president and meeting with him multiple times per day. Kissinger also holds the distinction of serving as national security advisor and secretary of state at the same time from September 22, 1973, until November 3, 1975.^[9][10] He holds the record for longest term of service (2,478 days); Michael Flynn holds the record for shortest term, at just 24 days.

Brent Scowcroft held the job in two non-consecutive administrations: the Ford administration and the George H. W. Bush administration.

List

  Denotes acting

No.	Image	Name		Start	End	Duration	President
1			Robert Cutler	March 23, 1953	April 2, 1955	2 years, 10 days		Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)
2			Dillon Anderson	April 2, 1955	September 1, 1956	1 year, 152 days
–			William Jackson[11][12][13] Acting	September 1, 1956	January 7, 1957	128 days
3			Robert Cutler	January 7, 1957	June 24, 1958	1 year, 168 days
4			Gordon Gray	June 24, 1958	January 13, 1961	2 years, 203 days
5			Mac Bundy	January 20, 1961	February 28, 1966	5 years, 39 days		John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
								Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)
6			Walt Rostow	April 1, 1966	January 20, 1969	2 years, 294 days
7			Henry Kissinger	January 20, 1969	November 3, 1975	6 years, 287 days		Richard Nixon (1969–1974)
								Gerald Ford (1974–1977)
8			Brent Scowcroft	November 3, 1975	January 20, 1977	1 year, 78 days
9			Zbig Brzezinski	January 20, 1977	January 20, 1981	4 years, 0 days		Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
10			Richard Allen	January 21, 1981	January 4, 1982	348 days		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
–			James Nance[14] Acting	November 30, 1981	January 4, 1982	35 days
11			William Clark	January 4, 1982	October 17, 1983	1 year, 286 days
12			Bud McFarlane	October 17, 1983	December 4, 1985	2 years, 48 days
13			John Poindexter	December 4, 1985	November 25, 1986	356 days
–			Alton Keel Acting[15]	November 26, 1986	December 31, 1986	35 days
14			Frank Carlucci	January 1, 1987[16]	November 23, 1987	326 days
15			Colin Powell	November 23, 1987	January 20, 1989	1 year, 58 days
16			Brent Scowcroft	January 20, 1989	January 20, 1993	4 years, 0 days		George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
17			Tony Lake	January 20, 1993	March 14, 1997	4 years, 53 days		Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
18			Sandy Berger	March 14, 1997	January 20, 2001	3 years, 312 days
19			Condoleezza Rice	January 20, 2001[17]	January 25, 2005[17]	4 years, 5 days		George W. Bush (2001–2009)
20			Stephen Hadley	January 26, 2005[17]	January 20, 2009	3 years, 360 days
21			James Jones[18]	January 20, 2009	October 8, 2010	1 year, 261 days		Barack Obama (2009–2017)
22			Tom Donilon[19]	October 8, 2010	July 1, 2013[20]	2 years, 266 days
23			Susan Rice[20]	July 1, 2013[20]	January 20, 2017	3 years, 203 days
24			Michael Flynn	January 20, 2017	February 13, 2017	24 days		Donald Trump (2017–2021)
–			Keith Kellogg Acting	February 13, 2017	February 20, 2017	7 days
25			H. R. McMaster	February 20, 2017	April 9, 2018	1 year, 48 days
26			John Bolton	April 9, 2018	September 10, 2019	1 year, 154 days
–			Charlie Kupperman Acting	September 10, 2019	September 18, 2019	8 days
27			Robert O'Brien	September 18, 2019	January 20, 2021	1 year, 124 days
28			Jake Sullivan[21]	January 20, 2021	January 20, 2025	4 years, 0 days		Joe Biden (2021–2025)
29			Michael Waltz	January 20, 2025	Incumbent	30 days		Donald Trump (2025–present)

See also

• White House Chief of Staff
• Homeland Security Council
• Homeland Security Advisor

Notes

1. Abbreviated NSA, or sometimes APNSA or ANSA in order to avoid confusion with the abbreviation of the National Security Agency.

References

2009-02: The National Security Advisor and Staff (PDF). WhiteHouseTransitionProject.org. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2015.

1. "National Security Presidential Memorandum–4 of April 4, 2017" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on April 7, 2017.
2. The National Security Advisor and Staff: p. 1.
3. "History of the National Security Council, 1947-1997". whitehouse.gov. August 1997. Archived from the original on February 22, 2010. Retrieved September 5, 2008 – via National Archives.
4. Portnoy, Steven (February 21, 2017). "McMaster will need Senate confirmation to serve as national security adviser". CBS News. Archived from the original on March 1, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
5. The National Security Advisor and Staff: pp. 17-21.
6. The National Security Advisor and Staff: pp. 10-14.
7. See 22 U.S.C. § 2651 for the Secretary of State and 10 U.S.C. § 113 for the Secretary of Defense.
8. Clarke, Richard A. (2004). Against All Enemies. New York: Free Press. p. 18. ISBN 0-7432-6024-4.
9. George, Robert Z; Rishikof, Harvey (2011). The National Security Enterprise: Navigating the Labyrinth. Georgetown University Press. p. 32.
10. Schmitz, David F. (2011). Brent Scowcroft: Internationalism and Post-Vietnam War American Foreign Policy. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 2–3.
11. Burke, John P. (2009). Honest Broker?: The National Security Advisor and Presidential Decision Making. Texas A&M University Press. p. 26. ISBN 9781603441025.
12. "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, National Security Policy, Volume XIX". Department of State, Office of the Historian. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
13. Lay, James S.; Johnson, Robert H. (1960). Organizational history of the National Security Council during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency. p. 40.
14. Weisman, Steven R. (January 2, 1982). "Reagan Replacing Security Advisor, Officials Report". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
15. "Nomination of Alton G. Keel, Jr., to be the Permanent United States Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization | the American Presidency Project".
16. "Newly appointed national security adviser Frank Carlucci is planning... - UPI Archives".
17. The National Security Advisor and Staff: p. 33.
18. "Key Members of Obama-Biden National Security Team Announced" (Press release). The Office of the President-Elect. December 1, 2008. Archived from the original on December 1, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
19. "Donilon to Replace Jones as National Security Adviser". CNN. October 2010. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
20. Wilson, Scott; Lynch, Colum (June 5, 2013). "National Security Team Shuffle May Signal More Activist Stance at White House". Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 25, 2017.
21. "Biden to Appoint Jake Sullivan as National Security Adviser". CBS News. November 23, 2020.

Further reading

• Falk, Stanley L. (1964). "The National Security Council Under Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy". Political Science Quarterly. 79 (3): 403–434. doi:10.2307/2145907. ISSN 0032-3195. JSTOR 2145907.
• George, Robert Z.; Rishikof, Harvey, eds. (2017). The National Security Enterprise: Navigating the Labyrinth (PDF) (2nd ed.). Georgetown University Press.
• Preston, Andrew (2001). "The Little State Department: McGeorge Bundy and the National Security Council Staff, 1961‐65" (PDF). Presidential Studies Quarterly. 31 (4): 635–659. doi:10.1111/j.0000-0000.2001.00191.x. ISSN 1741-5705 – via www.corwin.com.

• Rothkopf, David (2009). Running the world: The inside story of the National Security Council and the architects of American power. PublicAffairs.

External links

• WhiteHouse.gov/NSC