Concerning The Role Of The National Security Council In Diplomatic Decision-making

The first National Security Council of the world was established by the United States in1947.With the development of the international society, more than thirty countries have foundednational security councils. The National Security Council, a crucial organization aimed atguarding the national security, plays a key role in the foreign policy decision-making. As the firstone of the world, the NSC of the United States has developed for certain decades. Its structure andfunction show general features of the NSC. The NSC of Britain was born in2010, thebackgrounds of foundation of which reveal the certain features of the exited international society.India is one of the powers in developing countries group. Its practices of the NSC could offermeaningful experience to China. The United States, Britain and India established the NationalSecurity Councils for different reasons. However, a common ground could be found that the NSCs,to some degree, were set to meet the requirements of foreign policy decision-making. What’s more,the structures of the NSCs show the possibilities to affect foreign policy decision-making. Basedon these three cases, the five roles played by the NSC in the foreign policy decision-making canbe summarized. Consulting implies that the NSC offers information and suggestions to thedecision makers through both formal and informal systemic approaches. Coordinating refers totwo functions of the NSC. On the one hand, it endeavors to reduce the conflicts between variousdepartments. On the other hand, it also enhances the capability of crisis decision making.Institutionalizing emphasizes how the NSC makes foreign policy decision-making more efficientand reasonable, including affecting the strategic focuses and attainable sources of the foreignpolicy decision-making, as well as institutionalizing the foreign policy decision-making. Powerdistributing explains how the NSC strengthens or weakens the power of a certain decision maker.Also it refers to the accesses provided by the NSC for some decision makers. By these two ways,the power of foreign policy decision-making will be certainly affected. At the last, some attentionsshould be paid to the special role played by the National Security Advisor in certain issues orcrises.