National Security Process

Abstract

This chapter is about national security process, with a focus on presidential decision-making. This emphasis reflects the central role of the executive branch and the president in national security policy and the day-to-day management of national security. This central role is a product of the constitutional and statutory responsibilities assigned to the president. It also reflects the executive's functional advantages in managing national security. The president's central role also reflects the singular role of the commander in chief in time of conflict. Alexander Hamilton observed in Federalist Number 8: “It is the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.” The Cold War and now the conflict against jihadists have done nothing to dilute this observation. National security decision-making gravitates to the president in times of crisis and in times of perpetual alert. As the terrorist threat is henceforth perpetual, the president, and the executive branch, shall remain at the center of national security process. Perpetual conflict will place added strain on national security process as ad hoc and emergency processes adopted in the immediacy of conflict may become norms over time. The question is not whether the president will, or should, play the central national security role, but whether he will do so using an effective process subject to meaningful policy and legal appraisal. Each of these factors places additional importance on understanding national security process within the executive branch.