The Obama Administration Moves to Reform the NSC

Fascinating story here on where the Obama Administration is headed with respect to formulating foreign and national security policy. When he selected General Jim Jones, USMC, as his National Security Adviser, word was that the President bought into Jones' view of highly centralized, White House driven policy making. Jones was said to be reticent to take the job unless he had the power and authority to do it the way he saw fit.

It appears he has that green light. Every administration deals with this issue (the role of the National Security Council/National Security Adviser) differently, but generally speaking, all come to shepherd more power into the White House as time goes on (usually as a result of watching the State Department bureaucracy grind down policy initiatives it finds distasteful to its own institutional objectives).

Given the high profile of our new Secretary of State and the respect gained by our continuing Secretary of Defense, Jones is going to have to pull off a pretty deft balancing act if he's going to make all this work, and his history as a military man is not likely to serve him well. I'm not trying to feed the parody of military men as decision makers; Lord knows, there is enough out there already, and yes, we are quite capable of leading organizations in which people don't have to say "how high" when you say jump. But you do get a sort of "comfort" with "command" after a while, a sense that people ought to just do it because you said so. This kind of thing does not wash in the civilian world, and it surely will not wash in the White House. Jones needs only to hint at a "because I said so" and the Foggy Bottom undercutting machine will go into high warble--as will Defense. Cabinet Secretaries guard their prerogatives very closely, and the kind of organization Jones is suggesting for the White House necessarily diminishes the power and influence of the Cabinet Secretaries.

Want a hint as to what that structure might look like? Take a look at the Project on National Security Reform Website--recognize any of the names there? Jim Jones, Jamie Steinberg (DepSecState), Michele Flournoy (UndSecDef Policy), Denny Blair (Director, National Intelligence). You see, the Obama folks worked this all out before they ever took power. Read the Executive Summary of "Forging a New Shield", PNSR's report on reform of the national security apparatus. It's only 33 pages, and if you're a policy wonk like me, it is wonderful stuff.

Now for the best part....I like what they are doing. The President was elected by the country, and so he should be setting policy through his White House staff. The Cabinet Secretaries are there (in my opinion) to provide input and to execute. Where Obama/Jones et al are headed is toward a more sublime implementation of this idea. The devil will be in the details, and the fun will be in watching this all play out. It will be interesting though to see if the Press covers the inevitable infighting among Jones, Clinton and Gates as gleefully as they did that among Cheney, Powell, Rice and Rumsfeld. Wanna bet?