What have we learned about how presidents organize for national security decision making, 1947–2017?

This chapter examines the evolution of presidential leadership in foreign policy with a specific focus on how presidents organize their ­decision-making processes with the National Security Council. It starts with a comparison of Cold War decision making by Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, who employed almost diametrically opposed advisory processes for gathering and evaluating information. The chapter compares the decision-making processes of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, whose administrations witnessed the historic transition from the Cold War to the post-Cold War era. It provides a comparison of national security decision making in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidencies, and focuses on how White House organization influenced decisions on combating terrorism in the post-9/11 world. The chapter concludes with a discussion of lessons learned from the case studies and implications for how the National Security Act of 1947 may require adaptation to meet executive needs for information gathering and assessment in the twenty-first century.