The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the national security council used by the president of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and composed of senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University. The center conducts policy studies and strategic analyses of political, economic and security issues throughout the world, with a focus on issues concerning international relations, trade, technology, finance, energy and geostrategy.
The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is the professional public policy school of Syracuse University, a private research university in Syracuse, New York. The school is organized in 11 academic departments and 13 affiliated research centers and offers coursework in the fields of public administration, international relations, foreign policy, political Science, science and technology policy, social sciences, and economics through its undergraduate (BA) degrees, graduate Master of Public Affairs (MPA), Master of Arts (MA), and PhD degrees.
Michèle Angélique Flournoy is an American defense policy advisor who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy under President Bill Clinton and under secretary of defense for policy under President Barack Obama.
The School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C. The school also maintains campuses in Bologna, Italy and Nanjing, China.
Stephen John Hadley is an American attorney and senior government official who served as the 20th United States National Security Advisor from 2005 to 2009. He served under President George W. Bush during the second term of his administration. Hadley was Deputy National Security Advisor during Bush's first term.
Richard Jeffrey Danzig is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 71st Secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton. He served as an advisor of the President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign and was later the chairman of the national security think-tank, the Center for a New American Security.
The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) is the international affairs and public policy school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. SIPA offers Master of International Affairs (MIA) and Master of Public Administration (MPA) degrees in a range of fields, as well as the Executive MPA and PhD program in Sustainable Development.
Mitchel B. Wallerstein is an American educator, philanthropist, policy expert, and former official of the federal government of the United States. He is the President Emeritus of Baruch College of the City University of New York and is currently appointed as a University Professor, teaching courses on international security and public policy. In 2021, he was also appointed as a Non-resident Senior Fellow on U.S. Foreign Policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. From 2003 to 2010, Wallerstein served as dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, ranked as the nation's leading school of public and international affairs. Throughout his career, he has led important roles within the US government, NATO, and in top universities and think-tanks.
Membership in the Council on Foreign Relations comes in two types: Individual and Corporate. Individual memberships are further subdivided into two types: Life Membership and Term Membership, the latter of which is for a single period of five years and is available to those between the ages of 30 and 36 at the time of their application. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have applied for U.S. citizenship are eligible. A candidate for life membership must be nominated in writing by one Council member and seconded by a minimum of three others.
The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) was a nonpartisan non-profit organization mandated by the United States Congress to recommend improvements to the U.S. national security system. Advocates of reform of the U.S. national security system contend that the fundamental components of the system, which includes the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency, among others, were largely designed via the National Security Act of 1947 in order to combat the Soviet Union. Today's global security environment, largely due to globalization, is much more complex than it was during the Cold War. PNSR argues that government structures need to be more agile and efficient in order to combat new threats such as terrorism, transnational crime, and rogue states.
Mark William Lippert is an American diplomat who worked as the vice president for international affairs at Boeing from 2017 to 2020. In 2022, he was appointed Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics America. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to South Korea from 2014 to 2017. Prior to his tour as an ambassador, Lippert had served as Chief of Staff for Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Chief of Staff for the National Security Council, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs in the Department of Defense. On March 5, 2015, he was attacked by a man wielding a knife in South Korea.
Thomas Edward Donilon is an American lawyer, business executive, and former government official who served as the 22nd National Security Advisor in the Obama administration from 2010 to 2013. Donilon also worked in the Carter and Clinton administrations. He is now Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute, the firm's global think tank.
Philip H. Gordon is an American diplomat and international relations scholar. Since March 21, 2022, he has served as Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. Earlier in his career, he was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2009–2011) and Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf Region (2013–2015) during the Obama administration.
The U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) was a high-level dialogue for the United States and China to discuss a wide range of regional and global strategic and economic issues between both countries. The establishment of the S&ED was announced on April 1, 2009, by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The upgraded mechanism replaced the former Senior Dialogue and Strategic Economic Dialogue started under the George W. Bush administration. High-level representatives of both countries and their delegations will met annually at capitals alternating between the two countries.
Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan is an American attorney serving since 2021 as the U.S. National Security Advisor. He previously served as Director of Policy to President Barack Obama, National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Biden and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Department of State. Sullivan also served as senior advisor to the U.S. federal government at the Iran nuclear negotiations and senior policy advisor to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, as well as visiting professor at Yale Law School. On November 23, 2020, President-elect Biden announced that Sullivan would be appointed the United States National Security Advisor. He took office on January 20, 2021.
Derek Chollet is an American foreign policy advisor and author serving as chief of staff to the United States Secretary of Defense. He served as the counselor of the United States Department of State from 2021 to 2024. Previously, Chollet was the executive vice president for security and defense policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. From 2012 to 2014, Chollet was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, where he managed U.S. defense policy involving Europe, NATO, the Middle East, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere for Secretaries of Defense Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel.
Bathsheba "Sheba" Nell Crocker is an American diplomat who is currently serving as the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. She previously served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 2014 to 2017.
The Foreign Affairs Policy Board is an advisory board that provides independent advice and opinion to the secretary of state, the deputy secretary of state, and the director of policy planning on matters concerning U.S. foreign policy. The board reviews and assesses global threats and opportunities, trends that implicate core national security interests, tools and capacities of the civilian foreign affairs agencies, and priorities and strategic frameworks for U.S. foreign policy. The board meets in a plenary session several times a year at the U.S. Department of State in the Harry S. Truman Building.
Frank A. Rose served as the Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration in the Biden administration from August 2021 to April 2024. From 2018 to 2021, he was co-director of the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the Brookings Institution. Previously Rose served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Verification, Compliance, and Implementation in the Obama administration from December 2014 to January 2017.
