Staffing the National Security Council: How Presidential Management Styles Shape the Composition of the NSC

Abstract

We examine how presidential management styles shape personnel on the National Security Council (NSC). We analyze presidential directives from Presidents Carter to Obama to categorize administrations as either “Hands‐Off” or “Hands‐On” managers of the NSC. Using Office of Personnel Management records, we construct a panel of all NSC employees. We find evidence of Hands‐Off presidents favoring administrative staffs with higher levels of graduate education. Also, across the period considered, there has been a decline in previous government service for those working on the NSC. Finally, we find no evidence management style helps explain the exit decisions of NSC staffers.

National security in presidential time: The politics of the National Security Council

“…Presidents staff the NSC, and the size and capacity of the NSC staff has varied over time, with the staff having grown significantly since the NSC's inception (Auerswald, 2011, pp. 33-4;Daalder, 2000;Lagattuta & Limbocker, 2021). Including NSC staff size in models of NSC productivity may give us insight into the politics of the NSC given Zegart's hypothesis that the formal NSC is likely to diminish in importance relative to the NSC staff as the NSC system matures (Zegart, 1999).…”

“…Scholars have examined how politics shaped the NSC's formation (Zegart, 1999), how the NSC evolved (Auerswald, 2011; Ries, 2016), and how presidents struggle to exercise control over the national security bureaucracy (Rodman, 2009). Recent analysis shows how the National Security Advisor guides the national security process (Burke, 2009) and how presidential management style affects appointments to the NSC staff (Lagattuta & Limbocker, 2021).…”