The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum 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.
James Franklin Jeffrey is an American diplomat who served most recently as the United States Special Representative for Syria Engagement and the Special Envoy to the International military intervention against ISIL.
Elliott Abrams is an American politician and lawyer,who has served in foreign policy positions for presidents Ronald Reagan,George W. Bush,and Donald Trump. Abrams is considered to be a neoconservative. He is currently a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as the U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela from 2019 to 2021 and as the U.S. Special Representative for Iran from 2020 to 2021.
The United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice is the head of the Office of Global Criminal Justice in the United States Department of State. The ambassador-at-large advises the United States Secretary of State and the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security,Democracy,and Human Rights directly and formulates U.S. policy responses to atrocities committed in areas of conflict and elsewhere throughout the world. As the President’s envoy,this Ambassador travels worldwide engaging heads of state and international organizations to build bilateral and international support for U.S. policies. As part of this,the Ambassador visits affected countries and engages a range of diplomatic,legal,economic,military,and intelligence tools to help secure peace and stability and build the rule of law. As the head of the Office of Global Criminal Justice,this Ambassador also has the rank of Assistant Secretary.
The Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism (CT) is a bureau of the United States Department of State. It coordinates all U.S. Government efforts to improve counterterrorism cooperation with foreign governments and participates in the development,coordination,and implementation of American counterterrorism policy.
Assistant Secretary of State (A/S) is a title used for many executive positions in the United States Department of State,ranking below the under secretaries. A set of six assistant secretaries reporting to the under secretary for political affairs manage diplomatic missions within their designated geographic regions,plus one assistant secretary dealing with international organizations and one equivalent as the coordinator/ambassador at large for counterterrorism. Assistant secretaries usually manage individual bureaus of the Department of State. When the manager of a bureau or another agency holds a title other than assistant secretary,such as "director",it can be said to be of "assistant secretary equivalent rank". Assistant secretaries typically have a set of deputies,referred to as deputy assistant secretaries (DAS).
Robert Malley is an American lawyer,political scientist and specialist in conflict resolution,who was the lead negotiator on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Daniel Vern Speckhard is an American diplomat and nonprofit executive. Speckhard is the president and CEO of Corus International,an ensemble of faith-based organizations including Lutheran World Relief and IMA World Health,and is a former United States Ambassador to Greece and Belarus. In addition to his diplomatic and nonprofit service,Speckhard has worked as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and is currently a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Sarah Sewall is Executive Vice President for Policy at In-Q-Tel,a strategic investor for the national security community. A national security expert whose career spans government service and academia,she most recently served as Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security,Democracy,and Human Rights,where she was the key architect of the Obama Administration's preventive approach to combatting violent extremism abroad. At both the Pentagon and State Department,she built and led organizations that integrated security and human rights in their policy and operational work. She spent ten years as a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government,where she directed the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. In partnership with U.S. military leaders,she helped revise U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine,led groundbreaking field assessments of U.S. civilian casualty mitigation efforts,and created new operational concepts for halting mass atrocities.
The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) is a study by the United States Department of State,conducted beginning in 2009 and intended to be done every four years,that analyzes the short-,medium-,and long-term blueprint for the United States' diplomatic and development efforts abroad. It seeks to plan on a longer-term basis than the usual year-to-year,appropriations-based practice,and to integrate diplomacy and development missions. It similarly seeks to correlate the department’s missions with its capacities and identify shortfalls in resourcing. Finally,it is a precursor to core institutional reforms and corrective changes. The first review was completed by the end of 2010. A second review began during 2014 and was released in April 2015. No further reviews have taken place.
Francis Xavier Taylor was the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS),nominated by President Obama in 2014. In that role,he provided the Secretary,DHS senior leadership,the DHS components,and state,local,tribal and private sector partners with homeland security intelligence and information they need to keep the country safe,secure and resilient. DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis is a member of,and the Department’s liaison to,the U.S. Intelligence Community.
In the United States,the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs or ASD (ISA) is the principal advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USD (P)) and the United States Secretary of Defense on international security strategy and policy on issues of Department of Defense (DoD) interest related to the governments and defense establishments of the nations and international organizations of Europe (including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization),the Middle East,Africa,and the Western Hemisphere. The ASD (ISA) also oversees security cooperation programs and foreign military sales programs in these regions. Despite the broad title of the office,the ASD (ISA) does not develop policy related to Asia,the Pacific region,Latin America,or South America.
William Edward "Bill" Todd was appointed in May 2019 as Deputy Under Secretary for Management. He also served as the Acting Under Secretary of State for Management from February 2018 to May 2019. He retired from the Department of State in May 2021.
The Office of Global Criminal Justice (J/GCJ),formerly called the Office of War Crimes Issues (S/WCI),is an office within the United States Department of State.
Brett H. McGurk is an American diplomat,attorney,and academic who served in senior national security positions under presidents George W. Bush,Barack Obama,and Donald Trump. He currently serves as deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
Tomasz "Tom" P. Malinowski is an American politician and diplomat who was the U.S. representative from New Jersey's 7th congressional district from 2019 to 2023. A Democrat,he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy,Human Rights,and Labor in the Obama administration.
Marshall Billingslea is a former Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing at the United States Department of the Treasury. He was the Trump Administration's nominee to be Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs,and he previously served as a U.S. Senate staffer and as a Department of Defense official.
Eric M. Ueland is an American political advisor and government official in the Trump administration. He served as the acting Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security,Democracy,and Human Rights from 2020 to 2021 and previously as the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs in 2020.
Kara C. McDonald is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to Lithuania since 2024. She previously served as the deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy,human rights,and labor from 2020 to 2024.
