The White House 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 with senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials, and is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Since its inception in 1947 under Harry S. Truman, the function of the Council has been to advise and assist the President on national security and foreign policies. The Council also serves as the President's principal arm for coordinating these policies among various government agencies. The Council has counterparts in the national security councils of many other nations.
Counterterrorism, also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practice, military tactics, techniques, and strategy that government, military, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or prevent terrorism. Counter-terrorism strategy is a government's plan to use the instruments of national power to neutralize terrorists, their organizations, and their networks in order to render them incapable of using violence to instill fear and to coerce the government or its citizens to react in accordance with the terrorists' goals.
The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the United States. The position was created by the Homeland Security Act following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Janet Ann Napolitano is an American politician, lawyer, and university administrator who served as the 21st governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009 and third United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013, under President Barack Obama. She was named president of the University of California system in September 2013, and stepped down from that position on August 1, 2020 to join the faculty at Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018. As of 2022, she remains the most recent Governor of Arizona from the Democratic Party.
Rand Beers is an American government official. He served as Deputy Homeland Security Advisor to the President of the United States during the Barack Obama administration. He also served as acting Secretary of Homeland Security following the resignation of Secretary Janet Napolitano on September 6, 2013 until Jeh Johnson assumed that office on December 23, 2013.
Ashton Baldwin Carter is an American public policy professor who served as the 25th secretary of defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He is currently director of the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
Zoë Eliot Baird is an American lawyer and president of the Markle Foundation. She is known for her role in the Nannygate matter of 1993, which arose when she was nominated by President Bill Clinton as the first woman to be Attorney General of the United States, but she withdrew her nomination when it was discovered she had hired undocumented immigrants and failed to pay Social Security taxes for them. Since 1998, she has led the Markle Foundation.
Walid Phares is a Lebanese-born American scholar and conservative political pundit.
Marco Antonio López Jr. is an American politician. He has served in both elected and non-elected public offices, including as mayor of Nogales, Arizona, executive director of the Arizona-Mexico Commission, policy advisor to Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano for Mexico and Latin America, and director of the Arizona Department of Commerce. He is best known as a previous chief of staff of United States Customs and Border Protection who served from 2009 to 2011 under CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin, and as senior advisor to the U.S.-based foundation of billionaire Carlos Slim focused on broadband connectivity for all and free online education.
Jeff Moss, also known as Dark Tangent, is an American hacker, computer and internet security expert who founded the Black Hat and DEF CON computer security conferences.
The Century Foundation is a progressive think tank headquartered in New York City with an office in Washington, D.C. It was founded as a nonprofit public policy research institution on the belief that the prosperity and security of the United States depends on a mix of effective government, open democracy, and free markets. Its staff, fellows, and authors produce books, reports, papers, pamphlets, and online publications. The Foundation also hosts policy-related events and workshops for various audiences, including policy experts, journalists, college students and other academics, and the general public. It also manages several ongoing policy projects and operates a number of websites on various policy-related topics.
Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Fellow and director of the Jeanette and Eli Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and an adjunct professor in Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies (CSS). From 2005 to early 2007 he was a deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he served both as a senior official within the department's terrorism and financial intelligence branch and as deputy chief of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. From 2001 to 2005, Levitt served the Institute as founding director of its Terrorism Research Program, which was established in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Previously, he provided tactical and strategic analytical support for counter-terrorism operations at the FBI, focusing on fundraising and logistical support networks for Middle Eastern terrorist groups. During his FBI service, Levitt participated as a team member in a number of crisis situations, including the terrorist threat surrounding the turn of the millennium and the September 11 attacks.
Jane Holl Lute is an American diplomat and security analyst currently serving as the UN special envoy on the Cyprus dispute. She served as the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 through 2013, after having been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 3, 2009. Previously, Lute was the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support. Before that she was Assistant Secretary-General for Mission Support in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations since August 2003. She is the President and CEO of the Arlington-based Council on CyberSecurity and Senior Advisor of Measure, a Drone as a Service company. On January 5, 2014, she was appointed Special Adviser for Relocation of Camp Hurriya Residents Outside of Iraq by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. On February 8, 2016, she was appointed Special Coordinator on Improving the United Nations Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
Juliette N. Kayyem is a former bureaucrat, author and host of the WGBH podcast The SCIF. She serves as a national security analyst for CNN and is a weekly guest on Boston Public Radio. She is the Belfer Lecturer in International Security at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy. She is a former candidate for Governor of Massachusetts and a former Boston Globe columnist, writing about issues of national security and foreign affairs for the op-ed page.
The National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) is a terrorism threat advisory scale used by the US Department of Homeland Security since April 26, 2011.
The Global Center on Cooperative Security is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit research and policy institute based out New York, Washington D.C., London, Brussels, and Nairobi. The Global Center works to improve multilateral security cooperation through policy research and issue-area projects throughout the world.
Jihadist extremism in the United States refers to Islamic extremism occurring within the United States. Islamic extremism is adherence to a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, potentially including the promotion of violence to achieve political goals. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Islamic extremism became a prioritized national security concern of the United States government and a focus by many subsidiary security and law enforcement entities. Initially, the focus of concern was on foreign terrorist groups, particularly al-Qaeda, but in the course of the years since 9/11 the focus has shifted more towards Islamic extremism within the United States. The number of American citizens or long-term residents involved in extremist activity is small, but nevertheless is a national security concern.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank and registered lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C., United States.
Lisa Oudens Monaco is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 39th deputy attorney general of the United States since April 2021.
Camille Stewart is an American technology and cybersecurity attorney, public speaker, and entrepreneur. She served as the Senior Policy advisor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under the Obama Administration from 2015-2017 under the Barack Obama Administration. She now serves as the Head of Security Policy & Election Integrity, Google Play & Android at Google.
