This chapter examines several probable features of the environment of the future that would have particular relevance to the effective development and execution of national security policy in the twenty-first century. Any effective reform of the National Security Council and its Staff must be rooted in the international and domestic environments in which they must function. The disintegration of the comforting international discipline associated with the Cold War leads to a new global environment-one that is less rigid but more uncertain.” The trend for additional departments and agencies of the government to become more intimately involved in the development and execution of national security suggests an erosion of the relative efficacy of military power as the primary component of national security. The ability of the United States to fashion such a strategy will largely be determined by the national security structure emplaced in the future.