National Security Council - Obama Presidency Oral History Back National Security Council Index / Organizations Transcripts Danielle Gray ...team there, and some folks on the National Security Council —Denis McDonough and others, Denis no... Dennis Ross ...State Hillary Clinton then joined the National Security Council [NSC] staff as a special assistant t... ...joined the National Security Council [ NSC ] staff as a special assistant to th... ...of state, and then people from the NSC , and Mitchell and me. And the two o... ...national security advisor job at the NSC —or I was offered the head of Polic... ...role of the White House staff and the NSC . In my own mind, it's not a grea... ...up by each of the offices in the NSC . Donilon never went into one of thes... ...Iran group with Puneet Talwar from the NSC . We were running an interagency revie... ...State Hillary Clinton, then joined the National Security Council staff as a special assistant to th... ...probably two days a week over at the NSC . I'm still seeing Hillary over a... ...Clinton in 2009. He then joined the National Security Council staff as a special assistant to th... Show more... Mara Rudman ...2009 as the executive secretary of the National Security Council [NSC]. She also served as deputy envo... ...of the National Security Council [ NSC ]. She also served as deputy envoy an... ...director for legislative affairs at the NSC . In this interview, we will not b... ...for legislative affairs at the National Security Council . I don't recall the exac... ...State with Wendy, and this job at the NSC . And I learned early on that the Whit... ...conversation with Wendy, and the NSC White House job was the right one... ...how I started at the White House and National Security Council , and that ended up with a bit o... ...security and the chief of staff at the NSC for the last couple years of th... ...into the role and functioning of the NSC when it was functioning at its best... ...say, were masters of the role of the National Security Council , at its best, both in advising th... ...be helping to set up and structure the NSC . And honestly, my first four month... ...doing the forward thinking for the NSC . Some of it—for example, I ended u... ...done with the transition work for the NSC . We have more we need to do there.... ...your work as executive secretary of the NSC look like in those first few months? ... ...context, to other senior folks at the National Security Council —who hadn't worked in those role... ...Did the function or the scope of the NSC change between those administrations? ... ...to Inauguration Day. The budget of the NSC had not increased tremendously, as ... ...recall. It had increased some, and the NSC budget is part of the White Hous... ...rest of the White House, they view the NSC as the eight-hundred-pound gorilla, s... ...My recollection is, the budget for the NSC had gone up some. You also had a... ...between that and the mandates of the National Security Council —and I believe it was called NS... ...oriented, both within State and at the NSC ; and that we had the staffin... ...who were at the White House at the NSC , as part of the overall team. S... ...moving to in the White House or at the NSC , and what the scope of his role was... ...Sandy Berger and Jim Steinberg lead National Security Council discussions at the principals level an... ...highest-level security clearance at the NSC and at State for the work I was doing... Show more... Jane Lute ...as director of European affairs in the National Security Council [NSC]. She also served as assistan... ...in the National Security Council [ NSC ]. She also served as assistan... ...on those issues. Then, I went to the NSC staff under President George H. W... ...that you had experienced the NSC , was that a difficult transition fo... ...when you went to DHS? I wasn't on the NSC . I was on the NSC staff. And in th... ...I wasn't on the NSC. I was on the NSC staff. And in the days when I was a... ...And in the days when I was at the NSC staff—and you'll notice people like Bo... ...who was the deputy when I was at the NSC staff, always refers to it today as th... ...staff, always refers to it today as the NSC staff. You are not the boss at the NS... ...NSC staff. You are not the boss at the NSC staff. You are the president's staf... ...staff officer. And when I was on the NSC staff—under Brent Scowcroft initially... ...then the Obama years. Your job at the NSC staff is to equip the president wit... ...presidents were “he” when I was at the NSC staff—in order to advance the interest... ...so when H1N1 broke, immediately the NSC staff convened a series of interagenc... ...You have Anne Neuberger, who is on the NSC staff, who is the president's staf... Show more... Lori Wallach ...the person in the double-hatted role of NSC [National Security Council] and NE... ...in the double-hatted role of NSC [ National Security Council ] and NEC [National Economic Council]... Kori Schulman ...to the chief of staff, to the National Security Council , and, I think, pressing for as muc... Derek Chollet ...director for strategic planning on the National Security Council [NSC] staff from 2011 to 2012, and a... ...on the National Security Council [ NSC ] staff from 2011 to 2012, and as U... ...be part of the transition team for the National Security Council staff. Of course, I was, and so tha... ...learning experience, being part of the NSC transition. I want to take a ste... ...of Defense] transition; I was on the NSC transition; Nate Tibbits, who was th... ...transition team that I was on for the NSC , which included Tony Blinken and Iv... ...you're talking theoretically about the National Security Council staff and how it's going to work. Bu... ...get us up to your transition to the National Security Council . But in thinking about the balance o... ...director of strategic planning at the NSC , which is basically a policy plannin... ...a policy planning counterpart at the NSC . It doesn't have the same cachet... ...and add capacity to parts of the National Security Council bureaucracy that needed it. Little di... ...in the middle of helping to work at the NSC on a war in Libya, I would've sai... ...director for strategic planning on the National Security Council staff from 2011 to 2012; and finally a... ...about to take up your position on the NSC , and before you did that, you told u... ...director for strategic planning on the NSC staff, which was designed to take ... ...and policy planning or at the NSC , has been that some of the things tha... ...created a bandwidth issue within the NSC system because you had so many thing... ...was fresh; I was new to the NSC . I didn't have a firmly set portfolio... ...accepted the position to come to the NSC ? The Asia pivot, or the Asi... ...you did with the role you played in the NSC , was to fill gaps. I wonder... ...that was my very first week at the NSC . In fact, it was the Friday of tha... ...ended up playing a major role from the NSC in the Libya policy. How did that com... ...that the Middle East director at the NSC was at the time, I guess, relativel... ...the time, I guess, relatively large by NSC standards, but that meant it was si... ...You realized, not just within the NSC but really across the US government... ...was done by other agencies, but the NSC had a big role in trying to coordinat... ...were seeing it personally within the NSC , as that momentum started to buil... ...quite clear the overall mood among the NSC , and certainly reflected in th... ...had some voices, particularly on the NSC staff—Sam Power and Ben Rhodes an... ...personally involved in Libya from the NSC in the months after the humanitaria... ...This was not a situation where the NSC was making those decisions. The NSC wa... ...the NSC was making those decisions. The NSC was coordinating other agencies an... ...coordination meetings going on that the NSC was chairing on various aspects o... ...of your time during that year on the NSC . So I wanted to ask what haven't ... ...talk to one another. So we in the NSC were sort of uniquely positioned to tr... ...of defense to visit Libya. I was on the NSC staff, and I went on the trip as th... ...with Karen Donfried, who was the National Security Council senior director for Europe, an... ...we discussed your move from the NSC to the Defense Department, and w... Show more... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Healthcare Healthcare go to the LGBTQ Policy LGBTQ Policy go to the Agriculture Agriculture go to the Hawaii Hawaii go to the Arts and Humanities Arts and Humanities