ABSTRACT
This chapter examines five presidents’ experiences with security policy, mindful of Seyom Brown’s wonderful title for his book on US foreign policy after the Cold War, The Illusion of Control. Today, high-level US officials and even senior military officers believe it is their assignment to “shape” the global security environment. Most presidents convene few formal National Security Council (NSC) sessions, which have grown to be large, set-piece affairs for media consumption. For actual policy-making, presidents usually prefer to use informal mechanisms. Policy planning, coordination, and monitoring are the tasks of NSC subcommittees, the most prominent of which is the Deputies Committee, the number twos of the departments and agencies represented on the NSC itself. The politics that often count the most in setting US national security policy are domestic politics. Elections loom large in most policy discussions because individual politicians and parties seek to gain advantage with voters by shaping public perception of the issues.
